New podcast tackles ‘Sports in America’ with a public media approach

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On Sept. 30, WHYY and Public Radio Exchange (PRX) will launch “Sports in America,” a nationally syndicated radio program and podcast about exactly what the title says.

Host David Greene, the former co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” said “Sports in America” will be an in-depth, long-form interview show where he will talk with athletes, coaches and journalists about issues, games and life in motion.

“Sports are so interwoven with our culture and our society, there are these incredible stories that we can tell,” he said. “We’re going to learn a lot of lessons that reflect back on us, teach us about ourselves and teach us about our society.”

Public radio is not often thought of as a mecca for sports fans, despite the frequent sports coverage on NPR flagship shows “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition,” as well as the long-running weekly show “Only a Game,” produced by WBUR in Boston.

“Only a Game” ran for 27 years but was canceled in 2020 due to budget cuts.

“When we started this show in 1993 I remember thinking, ‘How is a sports show going to fly on NPR?’” producer Gary Waleik told Boston.com in 2020 when “Only a Game” was canceled.

“I remember thinking, ‘If we can make this last a year or two, that would be pretty cool.’ Twenty-seven years later, I think we can be pretty proud that we created something that people liked,” he said.

“Sports in America” executive producer Tom Grahsler sees the absence of a dedicated national sports show on public radio as an opportunity to appeal to underserved audiences.

“This entire show is about this hunch we have that public media fans are also sports fans,” he said. “And that there are sports fans that would like more in-depth, hard-hitting journalistic interviews that are not being served by traditional sports media.”

WHYY already produces a niche, local podcast about Phillies baseball, “Hittin’ Season,” which comes out 52 weeks a year regardless of whether the Phils are in season or not. Grahsler says it is one of the most popular podcasts in WHYY’s bullpen, second only to “Fresh Air.”

“It could just be that Philadelphians in general are freaks, but when I talk to people at other radio stations that want to pick us up, we hear the same thing,” he said. “If you look at Kansas City or Chicago or New York or Dallas, you’re going to find people that like public radio and like sports. These are the people that we’re trying to reach because the sports media ecosystem can sometimes be super ugly. It can be toxic.”

“Sports in America” will be distributed on multiple platforms. It will be recorded as a video podcast, retooled as a radio show and then further re-edited as an audio podcast.

The show is based on an earlier sports podcast Greene hosted for the production company Religion of Sports, “In the Moment.” It ran for 27 episodes, before it was canceled in March 2023.

WHYY and PRX acquired the content from that show and “stripped it for parts,” according to Grahsler, to augment new, original content.

For example, during “In the Moment,” Greene interviewed Pittsburgh Steeler defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, the son of former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, who died in 2006. Among the things they talked about was their relationship as both pro players and family.

Since then, Heyward’s brother Connor Heyward was also signed by the Steelers. Greene revived his interview with the older Heyward and added the younger to talk about his older brother, his father and their football dynasty.

“Your brother said there are moments in every single game when he takes a second to reflect on your dad,” Greene asked Connor. “What were you thinking about when you scored that first touchdown? Do you also have those moments in your career where you think about your dad?”

“When I scored, I was just, like, ‘This is not true. This can’t be real,’ because we were at my dad’s grave earlier in that morning,” Connor said in the interview. “Honestly, I was speechless. I didn’t know how to feel. I was just like – ‘God, honestly, there’s no better feeling.’”

Greene, a lifelong fan of the Steelers who admits he can listen to local sport talk radio for hours at a time, said he is going after universal themes in “Sports in America.”

“I’ve been a diehard sports fan my whole life growing up in Pittsburgh and I’ve always found sports to be an amazing place for incredible stories and emotions,” he said.  “At its core, it’s an interview show, and I am doing it with a company that has made the best interview show in the history of radio, as far as I’m concerned, which is ‘Fresh Air.’ Coming into that space with ‘HYY is incredibly humbling. I feel very lucky.”

Over its 50-year history, “Fresh Air” occasionally broadcasts long-form interviews about sports, most of which are done by contributor Dave Davies. He said public radio has the luxury of being choosy about its subjects, and talks about sports in ways that traditional sports radio does not.

“When I do a sports interview, I find something that would engage somebody who is interested in the game, but also people who might not be. You need to have guests who can translate the game to normal people,” Davies said. “You ask different kinds of questions, like about the mental and emotional side of the game.”

Davies points to a moment in his 2013 interview with former Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer about the psychology of being on the mound.

“There’s this wonderful little segment where he talks about how hitters can sense doubt in a pitcher,” Davies said. “He has learned that there’s a certain posture you have to strike on the mound: You don’t whine, you don’t complain, you don’t throw the rosin bag down and stamp your feet. You show you’re in control. That’s a really important posture to maintain.”

“Sports in America” will debut Sept. 30 as a podcast and broadcast on radio stations around the country that choose to pick it up. In Philadelphia, the show will be broadcast by WHYY-FM at a time slot yet to be decided.