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Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Michael Smith, Isabelle Khurshudyan, and Mark Beech

Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Audacy

News, Business News, Sports, Sports News

4.3 • 721 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2019

⏱️ 95 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 75 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three guests: Michael Smith, who worked for ESPN for 15 years in various capacities including as a NFL reporter and SportsCenter host; Isabelle Khurshudyan, who has covered the Washington Capitals for the Washington Post since the fall of 2015 and will soon become a Moscow correspondent for the paper, and Mark Beech, who spent eighteen years at Sports Illustrated before becoming a senior editor at the Players’ Tribune in 2016. His new book is The People's Team: An Illustrated History of the Green Bay Packers.   In this podcast, Smith discusses why he is no longer at ESPN; his experience as the co-host of SC6 with Jemele Hill; how he did not want to go backwards creatively at ESPN after the dissolution of SC6; the challenges of navigating internal politics at ESPN; what it is like when the President of the United States and White House spokesperson are tweeting about your company and co-host; whether his relationship with ESPN was salvageable; his new role as an executive vice president and and chief content officer of (co)laboratory — a new L.A. studio startup; focusing on developing original content about sports and media training for athletes; continuing to work as an on-air person and much more.    Khurshudyan discusses her job responsibilities in Russia; how she plans to prepare for her new assignment; what it’s like to be an American reporter in Moscow; watching Russian news; how her Russian accent plays in Russia; her awareness of being monitored by Russian officials; how the Capitals organization was in terms of access and storytelling; why the Post does not pigeon-hole reporters and more.   Beech discusses how he went about researching the history of the Packers; the value of the Green Bay Press-Gazette archives; the Packers executives who turned out to be great interviews; the role of integration in the Packers story; whether Green Bay could ever get a team today; the importance of the Packers in Wisconsin and much more.    You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen.

0:05.0

Hey everybody, this is Richard Deich and welcome to the sports media podcast.

0:08.4

My producer, as always, is Patrick Antonetti.

0:10.7

Three guests this week.

0:11.9

Three interesting conversations, I think, for you.

0:14.3

First up, Michael Smith, who worked for ESPN for 15 years in various capacities,

0:19.3

including as an NFL reporter and a sports center host, specifically the SC6 host, with Jamel Hill.

0:26.2

And he was incredibly honest about why things ended up as they did with ESPN.

0:32.1

Those two entities parted ways, Michael Smith asking for a buyout from ESPN after 15 years. And I think you'll

0:38.3

appreciate that very honest conversation about Michael Smith and ESPN and now what he is doing.

0:44.7

And that is as an executive vice president and chief content officer for Collaboratory, which is a new LA studio startup focusing on

0:53.5

developing on original content and sports.

0:57.1

After Michael, Isabella Creschutian, who has covered the Washington Capitals for the Washington

1:01.6

Post since the fall of 2015, she will now become a Moscow correspondent for that newspaper.

1:07.9

And Isabel talks about how she's preparing for that assignment, what it's like to be an American reporter in Moscow, her job responsibilities.

1:14.5

Really fascinating career shift for her.

1:17.8

She's one of the bright, really smart young reporters in this country.

1:21.5

So I think you'll enjoy that.

1:23.6

Finish up with Mark Beach, a senior editor at the Players Tribune, long-time Sports Illustrated

1:28.3

Stafford with me. His new book is the People's Team in illustrated history of the Green Bay Packers,

1:34.2

a massive undertaking to do the history of the Green Bay Packers, but Mark Beach undertook it and

1:40.7

produced a really terrific book. Three guests this week, Michael Smith, Isabel,

...

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