Sports in Society Podcast

Drs. Jessica Kirby (UCCS) and Cassandra Phoenix (Durham Univ) join us to discuss aging and sports participation across the life course. We begin by challenging the ageist narrative of aging as a process of decline. We push back on that idea to argue that people across their life course participate in sports in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes including skill development, competition, exercise, and community building. We go on to explore older adults' different engagements in sports and barriers they experience. We ultimately focus on ways in which sports participation can be encouraged at all ages from youth to older years. Join the conversation of the Sports in Society discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Cheryl Cooky and Molly Cotner join us to talk about the complexities and contradictions of Taylor Swift and her engagements with the NFL. Contemporary feminism and postfeminism are central to the discussion: Ways in which pop and girl culture are trivialized and overlooked, men's angry reactions to Taylor Swift and her fans' presence in NFL football, how Taylor Swift is a commodity in the body of a person, and ways in which she embodies white feminism. This episode is both fun and serious, much like Taylor Swift, and it touches on issues of gender, race, politics, media, economy, and research. What are your thoughts about Taylor Swift? Join the discussion on the Sports in Society discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Anna Baeth and Madeleine Pape join us to discuss the highly politicized and complicated issue of trans-athletes in contemporary sports. At the heart of this discussion is debates about fairness, the meaning sex and gender, and positive outcomes of sports participation. This episode is directly relevant to chapter 7 on gender and sexuality as well as chapter 13 on sports and politics. This episode is incredibly important for sports scholars and practitioners alike as we make sense of complicated and contradictory claims about bodies and truth. What are your thoughts? Jump onto the Sports and Society Discord server to join the conversation: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Michael Messner (USC) and Michela Musto (Brown Univ) join us to talk about how feminist sociology helps us to produce new, useful knowledge about sports and the social world. This is a companion episode to chapter 2 "Producing Knowledge About Sports in Society". We jump off from Messner's famous article "Barbie Girls and Sea Monsters" that analyzes a moment in youth sports that reveals how gender operates at the interactional level, the institutional or contextual level, and cultural level simultaneously. We then discuss how Musto builds on that research when studying a gender integrated swimming club to show how gender can be more or less salient across sporting spaces. We conclude with a discussion of how sociological knowledge has powerful uses in real world sports settings that can guide sports professionals when managing sports programs. What do you think? Join our Discord server to participate in the discussion: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Cory Sutela and Shayne McCormick of Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates join us to discuss the pleasures and politics of mountain biking. We talk through how a vision for a well-designed, integrated trail system is developed over a period of decades and how the politics of land use is negotiated in that process. We go on to discuss the pleasures of mountain biking and how it can heal individuals and communities as well as contradictions around sustainability. This is a must listen episode for people interested local level sport management issues and opportunities. Join our Sports in Society discord server to join the conversation: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Drs. John Singer and Ajhanai (AJ) Keaton discuss the importance of sociology within sport management frameworks. A key point they make is that there is more than one way to do sport management, and that critical perspectives gained from sociology produces better sport management practitioners. Moreover, they explain how sport sociologists can learn from sport management. Sport sociology and sport management are ultimately mutually supportive fields of study and practice. What do you think? Join the discussion on the Sports in Society discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

In this episode, Drs. Letisha Brown and Tomika Ferguson join us to discuss Black feminist thought in sports studies and praxis. First, Drs. Brown and Ferguson define Black feminism, what makes it unique, impactful, and important within sports worlds. Then they describe how they apply it and live it in their scholarship, policy, and practices. In this way, we can see real world implications of Black feminist thought. This becomes clear in Dr. Ferguson's application of Black feminism in her program Black Athlete Sister Circle. We conclude with Dr Brown's discussion of how corporate media creates racial dramas to drive ratings, such as the Angel Reese-Caitlin clark "rivalry", but fall back on a racial script that stigmatizes Black women. Join the discussion on our Sports in Society discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

This episode explores the diverse, complicated, and politically charged world of Latine sports, which is directly relevant to chapter 8 on race and ethnicity in sports. We look at the range of terms used to name this broad array of peoples and communities. That discussion launches us into a survey of different Latine sports worlds, the uses and meanings of sports across these communities, and their political implications. We address how inequalities and opportunities unfold in different school settings. We discuss research methodologies and their potentials in sport management. We end by discussing the impacts of anti-immigrant hysteria in 2025 and the impacts of ICE raids upon Latine communities and how it manifests in sports worlds. If you would like to join the conversation, jump onto our discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv.

Dr. C. Keith Harrison and Dr. Brandon E. Martin join us to explore the changing landscape of collegiate sports. We delve deep into the implications of NIL, player salaries, and conference realignments. We discuss how this impacts students at all levels of college sports from the Football Bowl Subdivision to community colleges and how high schools will be impacted. But mostly we focus on the impact of increased commercialization of college sports on students and their families. Drs. Harrison and Martin provide guidance to athletes, especially Black athletes in revenue generating sports, on negotiating this new landscape. Join in the discussion on Sports in Society Discord server: https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv .

Asians, and especially Asian men, are often seen as outside the boundaries of citizenship, manhood, and sport. This episode explores that conundrum with Stan Thangaraj and Constancio Arnoldo. We look at the enthusiasm with which Asian communities engage sports and how Asian men use it to produce masculine identities even if those identities are fraught with contradictions. We explore the meanings and uses of sport historically and in the present. This episode centers an intersectional analysis power and coloniality with sports worlds. You can join the conversation on the Sports in Society discord server - https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv

Although religion and race may not immediately seem connected, Jeffrey Scholes (UCCS) and Umer Hussain (Missouri State) join us to explain how they are intimately intertwined in sports. We discuss what is religion and its relationship with sports. We then explore how Muscular Christianity did not just popularize modern sports, but also made sports central to the British empire . We look at how British imperialism created new sporting forms in colonies through a focus on South Asia. We discuss how religious theologies materialize in the social world through people's sporting practices in North America and South Asia, especially when athletes perform religious expressions in sporting spaces. We also talk about how religious and sporting identities create important management issues. And, contradictions that emerge when sports and religion merge. You can join the conversation on the Sports in Society discord server - https://discord.gg/QDzzETYThv