The Other 51

In the first return guest spot on The Other 51, author and professor Alysa Auriemma is back.

Brian promised Alysa the chance to talk about her love of Chris Evans, and so there is a lot of talk about Chris Evans. A lot of Chris Evans talk. Then there’s a super-deep dive into the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Things get super nerdy, folks.

But buried in all of this is an important question for writers — what is the role of fandom in our work? Is it like sports writing, where fandom is traditionally a very separate thing? Or can fandom play a role in how we conceptualize and write stories?

Can a podcast be live? Sort of? Maybe? Brian gives it a try this week with Kate Fagan from ESPN, the author of one of the best books he’s read all year.

Fagan is the author of “What Made Maddy Run,” a poignant look at college, college athletics, social media, mental illness and more told through the lens of Madison Halloran. During her visit this week to SUNY Oswego (where Brian teaches), she sat down with Brian to talk about the book and about writing.

Kate and Brian talk about how she first heard about Madison’s story and walks through the reporting and writing process of both an ESPN The Magazine article and later, the book. Kate answers a question she expected to hear more frequently than she did, how writing Madison’s story has changed how she uses social media and how she took care of herself while writing such an emotional topic.

Along with the heavy issues, Kate and Brian also talk about what she learned from being on the 538 Hot Takedown podcast, how she found out about Hamilton before basically anyone else and also discusses why she hates Aaron Burr (the song. Not the guy.)

Special thanks to Jeff Bradbury and SUNY Oswego for the production help and to Dan Roberts for helping set this up.

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.

*This episode originally came out in February. Erik's book on the Golden State Warriors is out today.

Erik Malinowski of Bleacher Report talks about writing a book about the Golden State Warriors, our favorite Simpsons episodes (including which one to best introduce Brian’s daughter to the show), and why you should never Tweet. We also get super nerdy talking about Scrivener.

Bob Crawford, bass player for The Avett Brothers, joins Brian to talk about his family’s connection to St. Jude, the work he's doing through the Press On Fund, and his quest to cure child cancer. 

Bob talks about the day his then 22-month-old daughter, Hallie, was diagnosed with brain cancer and how St. Jude gave him and his family hope. He also discusses how his daughter’s diagnosis changed songwriting for him, and how he wrote part of The Avett Brothers' song “Good to You.” He and Brian also discuss their favorite Founding Fathers (Bob goes way off the board for his pick) and the theology of Thomas Merton.

Anyone who knows Brian knows he and his family are big fans of The Avett Brothers. They're also in the middle of a month-long Avett Nation fundraiser for St. Jude in Hallie Crawford's honor. So this is a special episode.

Mike Jensen has Brian’s dream job.

When Brian was a young reporter covering St. Bonaventure basketball, his career goal was to write about college basketball in Philadelphia. That’s what Mike has been doing since the 1990s. The two covered some of the Atlantic 10’s most memorable games in the early 2000s, which always somehow involved St. Bonaventure and Temple. Today, they swap John Chaney stories (spoiler, he wasn’t calling about an adverb) and discuss what made the Temple coach so unique and so awesome to deal with. Mike talks about whether or not Chaney would be successful in this media environment.

Mike also discusses his year-long look series at the Philadelphia Inquirer about Philly Hoops. He talks about how Philadelphia basketball is a neighborhood of its own, how he picks his stories, why he’s not writing nostalgia stories in this series and defines what Philadelphia basketball is in 2017.

The only thing missing is Ray Cella.

Dr. Sherri Williams and Brian were classmates in the doctoral program at Syracuse University. Sherri is a former newspaper reporter who is now a newly hired assistant professor at American University in Washington D.C. and incredibly gifted and prolific writer on the intersection of race, media and popular culture.

She and Brian talk about the difficulty they faced in moving from newspapers to academia and why they both, in part, don’t consider themselves fully academics. Sherri also discusses the impact Oprah had on her life and career, why she considers herself a storyteller above all else, the importance of the bulletin board at the supermarket or listening to people talk at a bar to finding story ideas, and how a looming deadline led her to write one of her most personal stories.

Matt Cerrone was one of the pioneers of digital sports media. MetsBlog.com, the site he created in the 2000s, has been an indispensable resource for New York Mets fans.

He joins Brian this week to talk about just what the heck happened to the Mets this season, and the challenges and opportunities that a bad year like this presents to writers and storytellers. Matt talks about how he created MetsBlog and how he maintains it while still being a dad to two young kids, why knowing your own strength and weaknesses is so important to being a writer, how blogging really hasn’t changed that much and why journalists need to realize that they’re in the customer service.

He and Brian also talk about Matt’s new book and the joys of New England IPAs.

Russell Westbrook.

In Jenni Carlson’s job as a sports columnist at The Oklahoman, she could probably write those two words in the lede of a column and attract readers. But there is more to Jenni’s job than just writing about Oklahoma football and the Thunder.

She and Brian talk about where she finds ideas for more off-beat columns and the balancing act between writing “off-Main Street” columns with ones about subjects her readers care about. She also discusses how writing is kind of scientific and what the ingredients of a good column are, and makes a good Oklahoma story — beyond just football, tornados and military affiliation.

They also talk about how they relate to current politics through The West Wing, what makes that series so beloved by writers and why you should NEVER invoke Leo McGarry’s name in comparison with anybody in the current administration.

A few years ago, when Brian was writing his dissertation at Syracuse, one of the books that provided the best material and most inspiration was Rebuilding the News by Dr. Chris Anderson.

Today, Chris — a professor at the University of Leeds and the City University of New York - joins Brian to talk about academic writing and the profession of journalism. They talk about what made the era between 2003-09 so fascinating for media sociologists, why tabloid newspapers were probably better suited for the digital revolution than broadsheets, why Chris misses being a doctoral student, and how he is a fast writer of truly awful first drafts. They also discuss Chris’ upcoming book on digital journalism and his respect for Aaron Burr (sir).