Radio Atlantic

How Much Longer Can Football Last?

Mark Leibovich has a day job covering the reality show of politics as the New York Times Magazine’s Chief National Correspondent, but he’s spent the spent the last few years reporting a book on America’s other biggest reality show: football.
The new season begins with Colin Kaepernick the face of Nike, Donald Trump the NFL’s biggest commentator, and America’s most popular sport facing a myriad of problems. How does football survive both CTE and declining ratings? Which is the bigger swamp – Washington, DC, or an NFL owner’s box?

Links

- Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times (Mark Leibovich, 2018)
- “The Absurdist Spectacle of the Nike Boycotts” (Hannah Giorgis, September 5, 2018)
- “Colin Kaepernick, Nike, and the Myth of Good and Bad Companies” (Joshua Hunt, September 5, 2018)
- “Taking a Blowtorch to Debate” (Alex Wagner, September 5, 2018)
- “Trump’s Divisive and Relentless Politicization of the NFL” (Ben Strauss, September 1, 2018)
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The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas.
The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.