Podcast Corner: Milestone for Second Captains as they hit 2,000 episodes
Second Captains: celebrating 2000 episodes of sporting podcasts. Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
Congratulations to Second Captains for hitting a landmark 2,000th episode recently. The podcast is celebrating with a series of special shows over the month, the highlight to come possibly David O'Doherty's interview with Paul Kimmage. Among Second Captains' (sadly) regular features now is the postmortem that follows another drab Republic of Ireland performance.
The discussion between journalists Miguel Delaney and Gavin Cooney was interesting for how they wrestled with political stances - should the Irish players have borne a human rights message on their shirts ahead of kick-off against Qatar? Cooney and Delaney had different takes, the former refusing to "condemn players for not protesting", adding that "not to sound too much like a Bohs fan, if you're in that situation, you're socialising the responsibility of a capitalist problem". Heady stuff for a soccer podcast.
But shouldn't that be what we demand of sports analysis nowadays? That politics, particularly with the World Cup set for Qatar in 2022, and sport are intrinsically linked and can't be ignored?
A cursory look at the top sports shows on Apple Podcasts suggests we do just want the banter of Peter Crouch or The Ultimate Top 10s of Sport, a new show hosted by Sue Barker, Matt Dawson, and Phil Tuffnell; Top 10 GOATs (greatest of all time) is an acronym-challenged head-scratcher of an episode title. It must be noted, though, that Totally Football and others - see Football Weekly's recent climate change special - do occasionally touch on important matters away from the pitch.
Two new NBA-focused shows may show how football could follow. Takeline is the first sports podcast from Crooked Media, home of Pod Save America. Hosted by former Ringer alum Jason Concepcion and Renee Montgomery, co-owner of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, in the three episodes to date they have discussed anti-trans bills, sexism in college basketball, and Georgia's voting law. Meanwhile, Spinsters, from Blue Wire Podcasts, is hosted by Haley O'Shaughnessy and Jordan Ligons.
In their handful of episodes to date, what has stood out has been their reportage: Instead of focusing on a year of Covid anniversary chat, they contrasted it to the Aids epidemic hitting the league with Magic Johnson's shock retirement; instead of NBA trade rumours, they asked what it's like for a player when they're actually traded, reminding you that these are real players with families. The fact Concepcion, O'Shaughnessy, and Ligons are all former Ringer employees can't be ignored. Bill Simmons is still the head honcho there and yet his podcasts feel stale by comparison. We don't just want the reaction to what's happening on the court or pitch - we need much more.
