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

Jay and Jeff discuss where the idea for podcast came from and how professors can use it as a companion to the textbook Sports in Society, including suggestions for assignments. We also discuss the role of the many ancillaries available to professors who assign Sports in Society in their classes, and how to maximize the value of the ancillaries to enrich your class and save you time.

We begin this episode discussing why talking about violence in sports can be challenging for some people, especially sports fans. We then address if human nature is inherently violent or drawn to violence. That opens up a debate between us on the ritual nature of violence in sports and how a "quest for excitement" operates in modern societies. Through a discussion of the Oklahoma Drill in American football, we begin to distinguish violence from abuse. We also address the gendering of sports violence. We return to a discussion of abuse with a focus on sexual abuse in sports. Finally we conclude with a discussion of sports spectator violence and terrorism at sporting events.

This episode focuses on how all of us can collectively work together to great a sports future that we want to see. In sociology, we do not try to predict the future, but based on studies of trends in social worlds, we try to understand emergent trends and possibilities so that we can create a world that is more democratic, inclusive, and humane. We do that in this episode by looking at two sports models: power and performance sports and pleasure and participation sports. We discuss the meanings of these models and their implications. We show how commercialization privileges power and performance sports, but we also look at how people can work to transform their sports worlds and what pleasure and participation sports offer. We conclude by focusing on ways that people can engage in creating the world that they want to see.

Whether religious or secular, people often shy away from discussions of religion since they worry it will be uncomfortable or confrontational. We address that question and argue the connection between sports and religion is important and needs to be analyzed sociologically. We also discuss how sociology gives tools for analysis of sports and religion. Through a discussion of "muscular Christianity" in the British Empire, we show how religion sanctified white supremacy. We then discuss Christians unique relationship with sports and address key stereotypes Muslims face broadly and in sports specifically through a discussion of Orientalism. We then conclude with Jeffrey Scholes' typology of religious expressions during sports events to see how theology operates in everyday life and reproduces racial relations.

We situate this episode in the classic framework of structure and agency and show how changes in the organization of school sports impacts athletes’ ability to make meaningful decisions over their own lives as well as leadership skills they can develop. We then move into complexities around elite collegiate sports, including the relationship between sport and education, economic changes at the top, and the role of media. We then discuss how community-based research can alter our perception of school sports. We wrap up with discussions of ongoing issues in school-based sports: gender equity and sports that risk head trauma.

We begin by discussing NFL players’ protests during the US national anthem against police violence in Black communities, and many white people’s negative reactions. This leads into a discussion of people’s belief sports and politics should be kept separate. We challenge that idea by discussing obvious ways in which sports are politicized. We then discuss how larger social context can cause people to interpret the same protest actions differently since context changes people’s personal relationship to the issue protested. We also discuss socially conscious marketing or when corporations use politics and values to sell commodities. We then address the current debates about “sportswashing”. We move away from protests to focus on the myriad mundane ways in which states at the municipal and regional levels as well as national level engage sports through public health and urban planning. We conclude by moving to politics at the international scale.

This episode focuses on chapter 12, "Sports and the Media: Could They Survive Without Each Other?" We begin the episode by situating sport media within neoliberal capitalism, which leads into a discussion of media deregulation. We further develop a discussion on how digital media technologies impact the experience of consuming sports. We also discuss how digital media allows athletes and fans to be both media producers and media consumers (aka "prosumers"). We then discuss the "sport-media complex" and how it creates tensions between athletes as sport workers with sport owners and the media. We conclude with discussions of women's sports and racial representation in sport media.

This episode begins by contrasting people’s motivations to participate in and watch sports as well as the motivations people who stage local sporting events to the motivations of businesspeople that stage commercial sporting events. This leads into a discussion of neoliberal capitalism and its major characteristics. We follow up that abstract discussion with a list of concrete examples of neoliberal sports spectacles and some of the overarching patterns in neoliberalism. This leads into a discussion of what Antonio Gramsci’s calls forming ideological outposts in people’s minds. After recognizing the excitement and passion people have for sports spectacles, we then explore some of the darker aspects of the spectacles, including providing public money for private profits in stadium building and workers learning to identify with the interests of their bosses. We then talk about ownership models other than the current private ownership model that often runs counter to what most of us love

In this episode, we begin our discussion focusing on ableist ideology and how we can avoid stigmatizing others. We then discuss how sports participation can counter ableist notions of aging as a process of decline, why ability is challenging to define, and we recognize limits of what sport can accomplish. This opens up a discussion about how life developments both facilitate and restrict the choices we can make about physical activity. We then compare the medical model of disability to the social model of disability. Next we discuss how the politics of the "norm-other binary" and how ability intersects with identities. Finally, we conclude by addressing how disability sports can lessen exclusions and impact "the empire of the normal".

We begin our discussion of social class in sports by addressing class ideology and the American Dream. We then focus on how the unequal distribution of resources in society leas to an unequal playing field in sports. We push that discussion to address inequalities in the built environment, and how that creates different access to health resources and fun. This leads us to address how wealthier people can create their own sport and fitness context in country club sports, and how that reality advantages the wealthy when it comes to college scholarships. We then discuss unequal power relations through discussions of stadium building, the cost of participating in elite sports, and unequal salaries between men and women sportspeople.

This episode on chapter 8 “Race and Ethnicity: Are They Important in Sports?” begins by recognizing that race is a social construction and how that leads people to see the social truths of race as fixed, immutable biological facts. The search for a jumping gene in Black athletes provides a case in point. We then differentiate ethnicity from race before applying our analysis of racial ideology to Jon Gruden being fired as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders when old emails in which he used racist, sexist, and homophobic language surfaced. This allows us to discuss how racial ideology impacts people differently, why Black men might have different reactions to a racialized incident from white men or even Black women. We further develop an intersectional analysis when discussing how tennis great Serena Williams was often framed by colonial history and knowledge. Finally, we conclude with the shifting, ambiguous racialization of Tiger Woods.

This episode focuses on chapter 7 "Sex, Gender, and Sport: Are Inclusion and Equity Possible?" We begin by focusing on how sex and gender are social constructions, and what is meant by social construction. We then turn to how men are paradoxically empowered in a patriarchal society but their gender expressions are also more heavily policed. This leads into a historical approach to research, how do outdated gender myths help us to see current gender myths that might otherwise be hard to see since they are currently believed. Next we address a couple of questions about sexuality: 1) What are some of the politics around transgender athletes and sex verification? 2) How can sports worlds both reinforce and challenge homophobia? We then discuss why so many men coach women's sports but so few women coach men's sports. Finally, we conclude by addressing strategies for achieving in sports.

We begin episode 6 with a sociological definition of deviance and several concrete examples. This leads into a discussion of how formal (written) norms and informal (unwritten) norms create distinction between what might encouraged in sports but deviant in other parts of society, and vice-versa. Recognizing that deviance varies across different institutional spaces based on the formal and informal norms of those institutions leads into a discussion of absolutist approaches to deviance that are rigid and moralistic versus constructionist approaches used in sociology. We then move into a discussion of "deviant overconformity" that may sound like paradox, but is in fact a concept that captures the paradoxes and contradictions of deviance. We use "doping" in sports as a case in point. The complexity and contradictions do not stop there as we delve into the shifting world of sports gambling. Finally, we conclude the episode with a discussion of hazing.

The fifth episode of the season focuses on chapter 4 "Organized Youth Sports: Whose Interests Do They Serve?" To explore chapter 4, we frame this episode with a discussion of the intertwined sociological concepts "structure" and "agency". After defining these key terms, we layout a history of organized youth sport. This history shows how institutional changes in US society and youth sports have impacted youth agency. We discuss at length the impacts of adult control on youth and anxieties around youth resistance to adult control. This brings us to the present "neoliberal model" of youth sport and how that impacts not only youth but also entire families. We extend this discussion to criticism of how a deficit-reduction model of youth sports is applied to low-income and "at-risk" youth. Finally, we conclude with what gives us hope and makes us excited about youth sports today and in the future.

This episode focuses on socialization in sports. Socialization is a key concept in sociology so we take some time defining it and discussing its importance to the field. We emphasize that socialization is an active, ongoing process of becoming human. This moves us to a discussion of physical literacy or the process by which people learn learn to use their bodies in complex ways. We then discuss how the simultaneous movement of sports out of public spaces into private spaces and from child control to adult control impacts socialization. Drawing on Howard Becker's notion of socialization into careers, we discuss how a person's sporting career can develop over time and at some point end. Finally, we talk about how sport can become part of a healthy or not-so-healthy lifestyle. The Sports in Society Podcast is copyright Jay Coakley and Jeffrey Montez de Oca.

This episode takes a deep dive into Chapter 2 “Producing Knowledge About Sports in Society: How is Knowledge Produced in the Sociology of Sports?” We begin by addressing a term that so many do not like, “theory”. We define theory, discuss why so many people struggle with it, how it is used in social scientific research on sport. We then move onto to the application of theory in sport research. That discussion leads us to focus on one specific theoretical perspective known as ‘feminist theory’ and the contentious, political nature of social knowledge. Finally, we conclude by addressing why people who are not “sociologists” should care about our discussion of theory, politics, and contentious social knowledge. The Sports in Society Podcast is copyright Jay Coakley and Jeffrey Montez de Oca.

This episode covers the first chapter of Sports in Society. Jay Coakley and Jeff Montez de Oca begin by defining the surprisingly complicated concept 'sport'. We move on to discuss our critical sociological approach to studying sport, and why it is by necessity inter-disciplinary and international. This leads to 'the Great Sports Myth' and the relationship of 'myths' to ideology, which is a key concept in the chapter. The Sports in Society Podcast is copyright Jay Coakley and Jeffrey Montez de Oca.

Get to know your co-hosts Jay Coakley and Jeff Montez de Oca. We might be world renowned sport sociologist now, but at one time we were kids who grew up athletes. Sports were a major part of our lives and the social worlds we inhabited. We discuss our personal biographies in sports and how our biographies are situated in social and historical contexts. Our passion for sports translates into our passion for the sociology of sports. The Sports in Society Podcast is copyright Jay Coakley and Jeffrey Montez de Oca.