Telling It All Podcast With Ben Goodman - Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl LI Recap

Topics Include: The Atlanta Falcons Dominate First Half (2:37). The Patriots Comeback/Falcons Collapse (7:33). The Falcons 4th Quarter Play-Calling (16:30). The Inevitable Patriots Touchdown In Overtime (22:30). Tom Brady As the Greatest Quarterback Of All-Time (26:40). The Devastating Loss For The Falcons (29:30). Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal 2017 Australian Open Finals (34:00). Carmelo Anthony Trade Speculation (39:30).

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Telling It All Podcast With Tanner Crouch - 2016-2017 NBA Mid-Season Overview

Topics Include: What Has Gone Wrong For The Orlando Magic/Minnesota Timberwolves (1:20)? Cleveland Cavaliers Mid-Season Overview (7:50). Possible Toronto Raptors/Boston Celtics Playoff Series (9:40). Tough Decisions For The Atlanta Hawks/New York Knicks (16:10). The Growing Legend Of Joel Embiid (23:45). Golden State Warriors/San Antonio Spurs Mid-Season Overview (28:15). The Houston Rockets Offensive Efficiency (34:16). James Harden/Russell Westbrook MVP Race (39:42). NBA Speed Round (43:10).

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Telling It All Podcast With Tanner Crouch - 2016-2017 NBA Season Preview

Topics Include: Cleveland Cavaliers Season Outlook (4:30). Boston Celtics As A Threat To The Cavs (8:45). Toronto Raptors/Detroit Pistons/Atlanta Hawks Season Preview (13:30). The Promise Of The Indiana Pacers (19:25). Tanner's Orlando Magic Homer Prediction (22:35). Golden State Warriors Season Outlook (31:40). Russell Westbrook's Revenge Tour (36:45). Utah Jazz/Houston Rockets/Portland Trail Blazers Season Preview (39:30). The Minnesota Timberwolves Taking A Leap (43:15). NBA Awards Predictions (47:30).

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Sometimes It's Just A Game - Sports Diplomacy In The 21st Century

In 1959, during the height of the Cold War, the Harlem Globetrotters took a trip to the USSR to entertain Soviet basketball spectators. The goodwill tour was representative of how international sporting events can paradoxically bring nations together, while at the same time still driving them apart through nationalistic self-promotion. While the Globetrotters went to the USSR to dissipate the tension between the superpowers through the entertainment and levity of sports, their trip still reproduced American hypersensitivity to Soviet propaganda of US race relations, and showed the desire of the United States to assert its cultural and sporting superiority abroad. The trip reflected a politically conscious effort by the US to present the black players on the squad, like Wilt Chamberlain, as contributing to American exceptionalism, rather than as figures subject to the nation’s racial abuse. 

The Globetrotters met with Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev during their trip to the USSR.

Sports diplomacy in the 21^st century can be understood as an emblematic prefiguration of international cohesion, but a force that cannot bring tangible changes to global politics. National rebranding through international sporting events, like the Olympics and World Cup, mirror how sports paradoxically transcend, and yet also further national stereotypes. While sports diplomacy and international sporting events can act as a symbolic pretense of the breakdown of political barriers and as re-defining a national image and identity, sports in and of themselves cannot create substantive international harmony, or improve the lives of ordinary citizens.

Sports diplomacy can act as a symptomatic representation of common ground between nations, and athletic events can manifest themselves as a symbolic forum for the beginning of international understanding. The love of sports can universalize the human experience, as Sharon Robinson noted her gratitude for “the unifying game of baseball” because it highlights the common interests of nations. By bringing teams together in a sporting venue, countries intrinsically recognize the legitimacy of the other country on the field, and simultaneously acknowledge their national identity while still reproducing international commonalities. 

When the Tampa Bay Rays played the Cuban National Team with Barack Obama and Raul Castro in attendance, the willingness of the United States team and the President to take the field with the Cubans implicitly symbolized American attempts to normalize relations with Cuba. Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communication and speechwriting, Ben Rhodes, said, “Baseball is part of both of our heritages, and part of the type of exchanges we are pursuing in business, in culture, in the arts, in sports.” The nations' love for baseball acted as a symbolic illustration of political attempts to reconcile the countries. Sharon Robinson reflected how the fan’s sense of hope, because of Obama’s presence at a shared national pastime, “struck [her] as a sign of the beginning of a changing Cuba.” 

Rob Manfred’s desire for a legal path for Cubans to play in the MLB without defecting serves as a representative framework for a new dialogue with Cuba that moves away from a practice where, as Dave Zirin said on TSN Winnipeg 1290 Radio, “Cubans are separated from their families and delinked from their home.” Thus, the US and Cuba used a sport that binds the countries to serve as a representation of political diplomacy.

However, while sports diplomacy can act as an emblematic demonstration of international understanding, athletic events do not irrevocably change the longstanding conflict between national officials. Michael Rubin referenced in his article in the magazine Foreign Policy how “President Franklin Roosevelt had granted Hitler legitimacy by having the U.S. Team participate in his Olympics [in Berlin in 1936].” Even if President Obama's main intention in Cuba was to merely “bury the last remnant of the Cold War” and begin negotiations with the nation, by sitting with Castro at such a public spectacle, Obama legitimized the exceedingly precarious elements of the Cuban regime. Rubin added “Athletic contests can’t bring rogue states in from the cold… when the final whistle blows, the lights dim, and competitors break their final handshakes, it is the same politicians who remain in charge.” 

President Obama was the first US President to visit Cuba while in office since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. 

Although politics and political regimes are reproduced through sporting institutions, sports themselves cannot construct international harmony because they are subject to political structures. Therefore, sports are politicized through symbolic codifications, but can only make social change in conjunction with politics. 

While the baseball game in Cuba may have personified an attempt at international convergence through sports, the athletic event did not change the nature of the Castro political dictatorship. Sports cannot transcend politics because sports are inherently political, as Cuban descendant Dan LeBatard wrote, "I'm not in the mood to play ball with a dictator who still has the blood of our people on his hands.” While sports may not actively bring about political change, the public still paradoxically imbues athletics with symbolic political implications, and the game in Cuba may have also implicitly desensitized the past torment of the Castro regime.

Hosting international sporting events project the conscious effort of a state to disseminate specific images of their nationhood and act as an extension of governmental identity politics. By putting a nation’s capabilities in front of the world, organizing a global athletic competition inherently assigns an immediate mythic grandeur to the host nation. It also re-defines previous external perceptions of the country’s organizational competency, and implicitly effects how other nations perceive them. 

Rook Campbell said about the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, “The World Cup helped outlay a nation branding legacy in which a post-apartheid South Africa could show itself as truly democratic global power.” The value of the World Cup to South Africa was how other nations saw the event as a legitimization of the progress of the state from its internationally unaccepted past. Campbell added that the event “was celebrated as both a national and continental opportunity to correct stereotypes and forge new stature.” The World Cup acted as a symbolic divide between the state and the vestiges of apartheid, and shaped a nationalistic identity apart from racial oppression.

While hosting an international sporting event may act as a symbolic representation of a nation’s re-branding in global politics, it does not ensure actual structural changes to the nation on the ground. In the past, global sporting events have come at the expense of public facilities for the nation’s ordinary citizens. Even the public transportation in South Africa that was developed for the World Cup or received more funding because of the tournament, like the transit railway system Gautrain, are as Andrew Harding said in the BBC, "priced out of the reach of most South Africans, and highly controversial new tolls on the motorways mean drivers are still paying for the renovations.” 

"Soccer City" in Johannesburg is one of many World Cup Stadiums in South Africa that cannot cover its operating costs.

Sporting events may temporarily act as a shrine to national identity, but once the glow of the event is over, ordinary citizens are left with the brunt of the event’s cost. The protests in Brazil against the World Cup showed how the commercialization of a sporting event as national rebranding, regardless of the costs, removes it from being the “people’s cup.” Sporting events further the marginalization of a nation’s democratic masses, and often act as a symbol of national progress rather than actually helping to bring it about.

Telling It All Podcast With Ben Goodman - Rio 2016 Summer Olympics

Topics Include: Rio de Janeiro As The Host City (1:00). NBC's Coverage Of The Olympic Games (12:10). Experiences As A Fan At Rugby, Table Tennis, Swimming, and Volleyball Events (20:25). Lilly King-Yulia Efimova Swimming Rivalry (28:40). Mainstream Sports At The Olympic Games (34:05). Overall Impressions Of The Olympics (39:55).

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Telling It All Podcast - MLB Trade Deadline, Russell Westbrook, The Night Of, Mr. Robot, Jason Bourne, Nerve

Topics Include: Trades By The Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers/American League Pennant Favorites (1:20). Trades By The New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals/National League Pennant Favorites (6:40). Russell Westbrook's Contract Extension (9:30). The Night Of/American Criminal Justice System (16:10). Mr. Robot's Second Season Struggles (24:15). "Oh my God... It's Jason Bourne" (28:35). Rory's Trip To Watch Nerve (31:45).

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Telling It All Podcast With Ben Goodman - Euro 2016 Final, NBA Free Agency

Topics Include: Cristiano Ronaldo's Injury (1:00). Portugal's Defensive Unit (4:15). Didier Deschamps Criticism (7:45). Portugal's Euro 2016 Run (11:45). The NBA Salary Cap Jump (18:15). Kevin Durant Going To The Golden State Warriors (21:30). New York Knicks Off-Season Moves (32:30). Dwyane Wade Leaving The Miami Heat (33:45).

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Telling It All Podcast With Richard Tell - Thunder-Warriors Western Conference Finals Game 6, Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid Champions League Final, The Nice Guys

Topics Include: Golden State Warriors - Oklahoma City Thunder Game 6 Breakdown (0:45). Pittsburgh Penguins - San Jose Sharks Stanley Cup Finals Preview (13:10). Warriors - Thunder Game 7 Predictions (15:50). Real Madrid - Atletico Madrid Champions League Final (17:00). The Nice Guys Movie Review (27:35).

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Telling It All Podcast - Leicester City's Title Run, Clayton Kershaw, Warriors-Thunder Western Conference Finals, ESports, Game of Thrones

Topics Include: An Ode To Leicester City's Championship Run (1:15). Clayton Kershaw's Dominance (10:40). Tim Duncan's Possible Retirement (16:45). Warriors-Thunder Western Conference Finals Preview (19:10). The Growth of ESports (24:20). Game of Thrones Discussion (30:15).

Shaq squares off against Thorin on Inside the NBA.

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Tell The Truth - 42 and Race Movie Review

As such a widely consumed vehicle of entertainment, the film industry can encapsulate collective norms, and shape how people look at race relations. Movies like 42 and Race explored established societal hierarchies and Hollywood’s construction and reproduction of power relationships through character’s race. Some film critics condemned the movies for their historical inaccuracies, dramatization of the facts, and historical omissions, such as the fact that 42 completely ignored that Robinson was not the only black player on the Dodgers roster in 1947 (pitcher Dan Bankhead was also on the team in Brooklyn). 

Films that attempt to rigorously portray circumstances accurately can still obscure reality with a general untruthful representation of racial opinions. On the other hand, dramatized and fictionalized scenes in 42 and Race removed the independent identity of Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens, and embraced the role of the white savior coming to the aid of the black athlete. Fictionalized creations of reality in these films also tended to imply a heroic democratization of sports due to the actions of the athletes, which obscured the maintained prevalence of systematic racism in society. 

42 and Race became problematic pieces of cinema, not from their factual inaccuracies, but when their stories unsettled a truthful representation of structural racism and removed the independent agency of the black athlete to instill their own place in society

42 Movie Trailer

Race Movie Trailer

In 42, Jackie Robinson was turned into a stoic, human myth rather than a complex figure that had to deal with the difficulties of baseball integration. The film failed to contextualize black discrimination in the majors by implying that Robinson’s heroic story could obscure the racial injustices of the past. Dave Zirin complained in the The Nation, “To tell his tale as one of individual triumph through his singular greatness is to not tell the story at all” because the film untruthfully conflated Robinson’s eventual baseball acceptance with overall black social integration. 

Despite accurately portraying the racist vitriol that Phillies manager Ben Chapman shouted at Robinson, the film failed to deftly show the subtle mechanisms of racial discrimination in the 1940s. By creating one of the film’s climatic scenes around teammate Eddie Stanky confronting Chapman, the manager seemed like the singular focus of white hatred against Robinson. In the New York Times, A.O. Scott mentioned how Chapman’s actions were “not an exception to the rule, but an especially ugly instance of it." The film underemphasized the systematic racism that black athletes faced by implicitly creating a sole representative image of that racism. 

Ben Chapman (played by Alan Tudyk) subjected Robinson to extreme racist vitriol.

Some of the film’s dramatizations did reinforce truthful characterizations of Jackie’s independent agency. Although the scene where Robinson was chased by a mob in Wendell Smith’s car was not strictly accurate, he told him “I don’t like needing someone to be there for me.” Jackie’s expressionism was not sullied by a need to show himself as the archetypical heroic figure that suppressed his black rage at the urgency of society. Unlike the rest of the film, Jackie was able to show his raw emotions. The truthfulness of Jackie’s complex humanism was shown through artificial manifestation of reality to symbolize that message.

Nonetheless, the movie largely fictionalized Robinson as a manifestation of Branch Rickey, a player that embodied Rickey’s sentiment of having “the guts not to fight back,” rather than espousing his own identity. As Robinson melted down in the clubhouse after hearing Chapman’s verbal abuse, it was only when Rickey came as the white savior to restore order did the seemingly helpless Robinson return to the field. By portraying Robinson’s emotional breakdown away from the public spectacle, and returning him to silent, individual suffering on the field, the film removed the truthfulness of Robinson’s active attempts to challenge and subvert systematic American racism as a black activist. 

Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) coming to "rescue" Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) and return him to the field for the Dodgers. 

Zirin suggested that the movie followed “the classical Hollywood formula of heroic individual seeds obstacle… obstacle is overcome… the end.” By starting the film with Rickey’s dramatized proclamation, “I’m going to do it,” 42 ensured that the audience would not see Robinson’s identity and heroism as independent from Rickey’s own self-proclaimed courage.

Similarly, when Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie during a ballgame in Cincinnati, a historically contested moment, the dramatized scene showed Reese giving Robinson the courage to continue to play and the transference of agency to Jackie only through the white athlete. 

Pee Wee Reese (played by Lucas Black) putting his arm around Jackie Robinson in Cincinnati.

Even if the film accurately reflected Robinson’s devotion to Ricky and his promise that, “I won’t let you down,” it still created an untruthful narrative of Robinson lacking his own independent agency. For example, years later, Robinson exalted the black power salute of track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, saying that he took delight in the fact that they were proud to be black. Ultimately, the movie dissociated Robinson from a collective black experience, implying that his internal emotions were an external construction, and making him, as A.O. Scott argued, “the least interesting character” in the film.

In the movie Race, director Stephen Hopkins did a commendable job of establishing Owens’s self-defined identity. The movie gave considerable thought to depicting Owens not merely as a product of the projections of his external environment, but based upon how he decided to present himself. 

When contemplating the request from the NAACP to boycott the Olympics, Owens told Coach Snyder, “Let me make the decision on my own.” Although the relationship between the athlete and the coach was clearly sentimentalized, Owens showed his desire to dictate his own actions and athletic body. Ella Taylor reiterated that idea in NPR as she said, “The point of view belongs not to Coach, but to Owens.” Unlike the mythic glorification of Robinson in 42, Race did not shy away from divulging Owens’s failures to stay faithful to Ruth Solomon, as Stephen Holden recognized in The New York Times when he said, “Owens, although usually well-behaved, can at times also be defiant, willful, and immature.”

Jesse Owens (played by Stephan James) won the 100-meter dash, 220-meter dash, the 220-yard low hurdlers, and the long jump at the NCAA Championships in both 1935 and 1936 under Coach Snyder (played Jason Sudeikis).

Race still lacked a truthful representation of the violent strand of racism present in the 1930s. As Race conspicuously displayed, a film can tell a factually correct story, and yet, still be devoid of an overall truthful illustration of the black experience. Although the movie accurately showed Owens being forced into the back of a bus, and showering only after white athletes, the film treated the racist behavior towards the black community as a mere inconvenience, rather than as a systematic repression. As the crowds wildly cheered for Owens during the movie, it obscured the "unforgivable blackness" of Owens.

Moreover, the film made it seem as though the ideology of white supremacy in Germany was isolated to what Carl Luz called the “insane Nazi government,” and its attempts to depict both domestic and foreign subjugation made it seem as though it was comparing forms of oppression. Race dissociated the German public from their racist dogma, as film director Leni Riefenstahl reinforced to Owens “The world can never forget what you did.” 

At the end of the movie, when a young white boy asked Owens for his autograph, the film implied that the future of race relations was changing simply because of Owens’s victory, although his own future was later constrained by a segregated American society.