On Pretty Much Pop, a philosopher, an actor, and a sci-fi writer (often with entertainment industry guests) talk about media and how we consume it: TV, film, music, novels, games, comics, comedy, theater, podcasts, and more. Most of what (other) people like is pretty weird when you think about it, so thinking about it is what we do.
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How is spectator sports different from other types of entertainment? Dave Revsine (lead studio host for the Big Ten Network and former ESPN anchor) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the various sources of appeal, team identification, existing in a sports-filled world as a non-fan, watching vs. playing, human interest stories, sports films, and more.
Some of the articles we looked at to prepare included:
- “Why Do We Care About Sports So Much” by Christine Emba
- “The Science Behind Our Love of March Madness” by Marco Iacoboni
- “Trying to Understand 50% of America: Sports Fans” by Carolyn Canetti
- “5 Reasons People Hate Sports — That Sports Fans Secretly Understand” by Logan Rhoades
- “The Art of Telling Human Interest Stories at the Olympics” from The Frame
- “10 Great Sports Movies For Non-Sports Fans” by Jason Bailey (there are several other articles out there on this if you want to search for them)
- “The Non-Football Fan’s Guide to Enjoying the Super Bowl” by Dan Steinberg
The first two links above were part of a series of 2016 editorials in the Washington Post coinciding with March Madness. As the whole series is definitely worth a look, just follow the links at the bottom of those articles.
Buy Dave’s book, The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation. Follow him on Twitter @BTNDaveRevsine.
This episode includes bonus discussion that you can only hear by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.
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