Shea Serrano is a staff writer for The Ringer and author of The New York Times Best Seller Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated. We had the chance to discuss his collaborative relationship with Arturo Torres, the artist who created all of the drawings for the book.

Shea is also the author of The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed. His new book entitled Movies (and Other Things) will be published in October of 2019.

You can follow Shea on twitter @SheaSerrano

Please note that this podcast was recorded while the NBA Finals were still going on, just after Klay Thompson had suffered his first injury of the series.

This podcast was produced by Eliseo Casiano.

New Orleans based artist Abdi Farah is back on the pod to discuss the outcome of the NBA playoffs, the ongoing finals and the real reason why Anthony Davis wants to leave the Pelicans (note: it has to do with their name).

Abdi's work can be found at http://www.abdifarah.com

Tema is a Toronto based freelance writer and Director of Community Engagement at Holy Blossom Temple. Recently, she wrote an article for the Jewish Daily Forward entitled "Are Jews White? American History Says It's Complicated." This piece takes a deep dive into the term "passing" and how it has been used and misused historically.

Although this conversation does not touch directly on sports, dissecting the language that we use to describe our bodies, as well as the bodies of other people, is crucial to breaking down stereotypes and misrepresentation.

Thank you so much to Tema for coming on the pod and sharing her thoughts. You can read the article we discuss by clicking the link below. You can also follow Tema on twitter @Temasmith and check out her website at www.temasmith.com.

https://forward.com/opinion/417274/are-jews-white-american-history-says-its-complicated/

This episode was edited and produced by Eliseo Casiano.

Abdi Farah is a New Orleans based artist and educator. We had the chance to talk about the upcoming NBA playoffs, his deep love for Allen Iverson, and his practice rooted in the appreciation and critique of the culture surrounding football. This is my longest episode to date, but truly filled with the most crossover between sports and visual art(!).

Abdi's work can be seen at http://www.abdifarah.com.

Please subscribe to Dear Adam Silver on Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud.

This episode was edited and produced by Eliseo Casiano.

Dana Bassett is a Chicago based curator. She is a host and producer of Bad at Sports, a contemporary art podcast that focuses on artists and exhibitions in the Midwest region.

Please do not forget to subscribe to Dear Adam Silver on Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud.

This episode was produced by Eliseo Casiano.

"Organized sports may be one of the great achievements of the modern state: they provide a means of public release of frustration, and they model the achievements of a supposedly meritocratic society. They also locate and inscribe a tribal identity that at times appears to transcend race and social class. But the awful truth is that is doesn’t. And now I understand why audiences are so enraged by athletes taking a knee: because these men and women are our dreams, manifesting a grace that the rest of us lack, a grace we expect to stay aloft, in the air."

--Seph Rodney, from The Political Truths That Ground Our Athletic Heroes

Seph Rodney, PhD, is an art and culture critic based in New York City. He is a staff writer and editor for Hyper Allergic and is also a member of the faculty at Parsons School of Design.

More information about Seph can be found on his website: https://sephrodney.com

His writing can be found on Hyper Allergic: https://hyperallergic.com/author/seph-rodney/

He is also one of the hosts of the The American Age podcast. Make sure to listen and subscribe: http://theamericanage.org/podcast/

This episode was produced by Eliseo Casiano (www.eliseocasiano.com)

Ronny Quevedo is a visual artist based in The Bronx. His work offers us a non-traditional approach to the spaces where sports are played while alluding to pre-colonial Latin American symbolism in much of his mark making. Through his work, basketball courts become both celebratory and spiritual, soccer balls are brought into question as a tool of oppression and the audience is called upon to rethink the rules and confines that exist in sports and ultimately, the rest of our culture.

Quevedo's work can be seen at http://www.ronnyquevedo.info

Seph Rodney's review of Quevedo's piece "no hay media tiempo" can be read in full at https://hyperallergic.com/392117/a-vision-of-us-immigration-beyond-the-melting-pot/

This episode of Dear Adam Silver was edited and produced by Eliseo Casiano.

Carrie Ann Welsh is a writer for ESPNW. She approaches the game of baseball through the lens of a poet, searching for meaning beyond physical boundaries. We discussed what formed her sense of the game as well as our own perception of athletes playing at the highest levels.

You can read Carrie's essays on baseball by clicking on the following links:

http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/19069292/how-baseball-poetry-bring-us-home

http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/17876378/the-space-silence-curses-counterspells-baseball

http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/article/19627186/cincinnati-reds-announcer-chris-welsh-daughter-carrie-ann-writes-tribute-him

This episode was produced by Eliseo Casiano.

Glauco Adorno(a dear friend of mine) is an art historian and curator based in New Orleans, LA. For this episode we adjusted our original topic of tennis to discuss the recent shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA and Kroger's in Jeffersontown, KY. We discuss these two horrific events through the lens of artists and focus on fear around the body, racism, religion and empathy.

This episode was produced by Eliseo Casiano. Theme song is by Eliseo Casiano and Aaron Sumpter.

R. Eric McMaster is an artist making work about the most physically practiced and trained people: athletes. Through his practice he disrupts their normal routine. We also speak about his work that uses sports to highlight our social hierarchy and the use and control of the body. I hope you enjoy our discussion; please subscribe and share with friends and family.

I am currently in the process of moving to Tucson, AZ. Very exciting! Once I am there and as I get settled, podcast episodes will be more and more frequent. In the meantime, thank you for listening and supporting!

This episode was produced by Ed Cirimele and Eliseo Casiano. Cover art is made in collaboration with my grandmother Edith Grossman.