Hang Up and Listen - The Big Baller Dad Edition
Hang Up and Listen
Joel Meyer
4.6 • 986 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2017
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin talk with ESPN’s Howard Bryant about racism in Boston sports. Damon Young also joins to discuss LaVar Ball and the “black basketball dad,” and David Epstein analyzes Nike’s effort to engineer a sub-two-hour marathon.
Racism in Boston sports (??): A conversation with Howard Bryant, the author of Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, about the recent racist heckling at Fenway Park and the history of racism in the city and on its sports teams.
LaVar Ball (??): Damon Young of Very Smart Brothas discusses his conflicted feelings about Lonzo Ball’s father and the specific role black parents play in their kids’ athletic development.
Nike’s marathon gambit (??): Assessing Eliud Kipchoge’s 2:00:25 marathon, Nike’s marketing of its Breaking2 event, and whether we’ll see more attempts to break the two-hour barrier.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:10.9 | Hi, this is Josh Levine, and this is Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen for the week of May 8th, 2017. |
| 0:18.2 | On this week's show, Howard Bryant will join us to discuss the history of racism in Boston sports, |
| 0:23.4 | and whether it's fair to invoke that history when talking about the slurs directed towards the Orioles Adam Jones at Fenway Park. |
| 0:31.0 | We'll then chat with Damon Young of very smart brothers about what Damon calls the black basketball dad |
| 0:37.2 | and how LeVar Ball fits into and |
| 0:40.0 | overwhelms that archetype. David Epstein of ProPublica will also be here to help us assess |
| 0:46.4 | Nike's just barely failed attempt to engineer a sub two-hour marathon. |
| 0:52.6 | Joining me in Washington, D.C. is Stefan Fatsis, author of the book's |
| 0:56.0 | Word Freak and A Few Seconds of Panic. Hello, Stefan. Hey, Josh. Before we start, just want to note |
| 1:02.4 | that basketball is my favorite sport. The NBA is my favorite pro sports league, but the NBA |
| 1:07.9 | just needs to come harder. The playoffs have been a disappointment. The |
| 1:11.4 | Cavs and the Warriors are both undefeated thus far. The finals three match seems inevitable. |
| 1:18.4 | I just coined that on the fly. And I just really want to be talking about the NBA right now, |
| 1:23.7 | but these other topics were just more interesting. You don't have to apologize. |
| 1:28.3 | I'm not apologize. |
| 1:35.4 | I'm explaining to myself and to the people and just urging the NBA to do better, be better. |
| 1:36.6 | You don't have to explain to the people. |
| 1:39.2 | You just explain to yourself. |
| 1:40.3 | Okay. |
| 1:56.6 | In our bonus segment for Slate Plus members, the aforementioned Howard Bryant and our colleague June Thomas will convene to discuss ESPN's Sunday morning institution, the sports reporters, which just ended its 29-year run on the network this weekend. |
| 2:02.0 | Join Slate Plus for $49 a year, and you'll get bonus segments on this and other Slate podcast every week. Sign up at slate.com slash hangup plus. |
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