Marshall here, welcome to Ari Something Interesting, the Realignment's new weekend show, focused on work and ideas that fall a bit outside the realignment's weekly focus on policy and politics, but can still help us better understand the world around us.

Today I'm speaking with Georgia, Tech, Sports History, Professor Johnny Smith, about his new book, Jump Man,

The Making and Meaning of Michael Jordan, which unlike a bunch of the other great

Michael Jordan Bios, people have probably read, looks at his career during the 1990-91

Championship season through the lens of race and culture in the

America of the 1990s. I was actually born the year after the season so I'm just

really interested in looking back at the 80s and 90s

through this lens especially because it's been long enough that it's gonna feel like a whole

other world with totally shifting dynamics and every single area you could possibly imagine. If you enjoy

this conversation you can purchase Jumpman at the R.E. something interesting

bookshop and be sure to write into the realignment with any other topics or ideas for these Saturday episodes.

Hope you enjoy the conversation.

Johnny Smith, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

So this is part of a series I'm doing where I'm focusing on

sociocultural topics beyond just typical politics policy history. Here is the first question that relates to your

broader body of work in an academic sense. What can analyzing sports?

How does that sort of focus area reveal deeper realities of America and society? Yeah, I think historically sports have been a central contested space around race and equality. You know, if we think back to the early 20th century when Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion of the world,

you know, his story is all about how he fought and resisted the color line in America.

And so I think, you know, one of the themes of my courses at Georgia Tech,

when I teach courses on the history of sports,

or the history of African American athletes athletes is I try to show them how our

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