Hey, confessional listeners, you may be wondering right now, why is there a sports podcast in the confessional feed this week?

Well, here's why

steroids

Each week on the confessional my guests tell me about a moment in their life when they were at their worst

something they did or said for which they feel deeply ashamed

Something that were this the only thing you ever knew about them and let's say you learned about it in 160 characters on Twitter

You'd think they were beyond redemption

But I don't leave it there

So we talk about systemic or familial or mental health or addiction factors that contributed to them doing the horrible thing

We talk about what they learned as a result of doing the horrible thing how they are making it right and who they are at now

in other words, I

Want their stories to breathe

Because by doing so and by allowing myself to look at the complexities

I find a place of compassion and understanding

and I want compassion and understanding

Just slightly more than I want the sugar high of self-righteousness

Which brings me to crushed a new podcast from religion of sports and PRX in which veteran sports writer

Joan Nies and tells about how she fell in love with the sport of baseball in the 90s

only to have her heart broken by the steroids scandal and how she's now digging into the complexities and letting the story breathe

So she can think of her first love with understanding and maybe even compassion again

I'll be back next week with an original episode of the confessional

But until then enjoy crushed season one episode one

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