264: Max Rushden (Pt 1)
The Socially Distant Sports Bar
Nata Media
4.9 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elis James (Elis & John, Oh What A Time), Mike Bubbins (Mammoth), and Steff Garrero return with another round of top-tier sporting nonsense, barely researched takes, and an absolutely brilliant special guest.
“Like a sports podcast, if the sport was optional.”
✨ This Week’s Special Guest – Max Rushden!
If you’ve enjoyed our guest episodes with Chesney Hawkes, Josh Widdicombe, or Sam Warburton, you’re in for a treat.
This week we welcome Max Rushden — broadcaster, podcaster, football obsessive, and all-round good guy.
Max is the long-running host of Guardian Football Weekly, where he teams up with our friend Barry Glendenning for football chat, laughs, and chaos.
He’s also recently launched a new podcast with comedian David O’Doherty called What Did You Do Yesterday?, where they interview fascinating guests about a completely ordinary day.
Max’s broadcasting career has spanned BBC Radio 5 Live, talkSPORT, Channel 4’s Jump Off, and iconic years hosting Sky’s Soccer AM.
Known for his wit, love of the underdog, and eye for the ridiculous, Max fits right in at the Distant Pod.
🎟️ We’re Going on Tour in 2026!
We’re hitting the road with a brand-new live show in 2026!
Tickets on general sale now – head to distantpod.com/live for all the details.
📍 Tour Dates:
- Fri 20 March 2026 – Cardiff, New Theatre
- Sat 21 March 2026 – Cardiff, New Theatre
- Tue 7 April 2026 – London, Hackney Empire
- Wed 8 April 2026 – London, Hackney Empire
- Fri 24 April 2026 – Carmarthen, Lyric Theatre
🎉 This Week’s Show – Don’t Miss It!
Max has brought some absolute gems to the show:
🥫 Baked Beans, Penalties – Max and Charlie Baker
🐎 Man Versus Beast
Yes, humans really raced animals on TV in 2003. No, we can’t quite believe it either.
⛸️ Steven Bradbury – Australian Speed Skating Gold, 2002
The greatest underdog gold medal of all time.
(Yes, Joe Marler wishes he picked it, but no, it wasn’t actually his choice. And yes, technically Steff picked it for a live stream, but… we’ve lost the tapes.)
📖 A Little Extra Gift from Max
Max also shared this brilliant nostalgic piece that perfectly fits the vibe of the pod:
🔗 Vonk, Zoeller, Tomba… The Joy of Sporting Names (The Guardian)
💡 Get More of the Pod Every Week
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- Bonus episodes & extra clips
- Michael Owen’s Movie Club & Hoffi Pod
- Early access & live tour presale
- Gift memberships
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🎉 Another week of sport, nostalgia, and nonsense — only on The Socially Distant Sports Bar!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wonderry Plus is better than ever, with updates just for our UK listeners. |
| 0:03.9 | Wondry plus subscribers can listen to episodes of the socially distant sports bar early and ad-free. |
| 0:08.4 | Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:13.1 | Start your free trial now. |
| 0:17.2 | Hello, welcome to this week's socially distant sports bar but this is part one of this week's episode. |
| 0:23.5 | And as you can tell from the title of the episode and hopefully from the artwork as well, |
| 0:29.0 | this is a guest episode which contains the podcaster, the radio host, the TV presenter, Max Rushden, |
| 0:40.7 | as our extra companion in the room, the fourth guy, the fourth wheel within the room. |
| 0:46.3 | I'm not sure that works. |
| 0:47.3 | The fourth wheel. |
| 0:48.2 | That's fine. |
| 0:48.9 | How would you know Max? |
| 0:50.3 | Talk Sport, you will know Max from. |
| 0:51.9 | Max works on TalkSport with Charlie Baker, with Barry Glenn Denning. |
| 0:57.1 | He does Guardian Football Weekly, probably the most unattainable chart rivals for us in the sports charts. |
| 1:07.0 | Because ridiculously, we do find ourselves in the sports charts despite being a loosely sports |
| 1:12.3 | based comedy podcast, I think. That's probably how we were described in one review, or loosely |
| 1:16.8 | comedy-based sports podcast in some other reviews. But we're never going to hit them. We're never |
| 1:21.9 | going to get to Barry and Max's heights, which is why Ellis often goes on their podcast, just to feel what those |
| 1:28.7 | dizzying heights are like. Barry's going to be really, really annoyed that Max is on as a guest, |
| 1:33.8 | because Barry is a long-time listener, long-time patron to our podcast, long-time attender of our |
| 1:40.4 | live shows as well. Yeah, Barry's going to be furious that Max is on ahead of him, but |
... |
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