Hamilton. Jason Isbell. Sports writing.

Kevin Van Valkenburg is pretty much the perfect guest for The Other 51.

Kevin, a feature writer for ESPN The Magazine, joins Brian to talk about seeing the original cast of Hamilton (apparently, it was worth it). He and Brian talk a lot about their admiration for Jason Isbell and what makes him such a gifted lyricist and songwriter. They also talk about how to develop the instinct to find the right details, how Kevin connected with Eddy Lacy before writing a recent feature story, and why reading is so, so important to being a writer. Kevin, who taught for a semester at the University of Montana, also describes how teaching writing improved his own work, and how he showed his students that you are never too busy to do a great piece of writing.