An NBA season unlike any in the game’s history—marked by tragedy and pandemic and racial injustice—comes to a stirring conclusion with LeBron and the Lakers hoisting the trophy.

The End of a Loooooong Season

Marcus Thompson

As the NBA playoffs continue and social justice issues are at the forefront of national conversations, The Athletic's Marcus Thompson joined us to talk about activism, covering the Warriors, racism, and more.

LJB returns with The Athletic's Marcus Thompson

Howard Bryant

ESPN's Howard Bryant talks his book, "The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics," the NBA, protesting, patriotism and more.

Howard Bryant on Activism, Courage, and Protest

As protests continue across the country, the “Ball” part of this podcast has taken a backseat. In this episode Marty and Kris discusses the monuments and statues being being torn down across the country, the conflict for the young black voter, and the debt that is owed to African-Americans.

Liberty, Justice, and not much Ball

Liberty, Justice, and Ball Returns As America Reels from Racism by Liberty, Justice, and Ball

Liberty, Justice, and Ball Returns As America Reels from Racism

Nancy Lieberman

Naismith Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman reflects on her pioneering journey in basketball

Mama Mamba: The Incredible Legacy of Nancy Lieberman

Bob Cousy

Bill Russell

Award-winning author Gary Pomerantz talks about legends Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain--and about the experience of the first great black players in the NBA.

Black And White And Green--The Legacy of Bill Russell and Bob Cousy With The Celtics

Ryan Martin

in this episode 12-year professional wheelchair basketball star Ryan Martin talks about his playing career and the foundation he's started to increase more opportunities for athletes with disabilities.

Wheelchair Basketball: Ryan Martin provides a deeper understanding

Alexander Wolff

The longest-tenured writer in the history of Sports Illustrated, Alexander Wolff writes chiefly about basketball. His work has frequently touched upon the social justice side of the game, including his fascinating look at the 44th President,  The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama.

Alexander Wolff: Poet Laureate of Basketball

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir

Like the game she stars in, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her story includes becoming the all-time leading scorer in state high school history, dealing with Islamophobia, playing ball with Barack Obama, and discovering a deeper faith on the path to social justice.

The Journey of Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir: Basketball Standout, Civil Rights Pioneer

This episode focuses on the the complex legacy of Kobe Bryant, who died at 41 along with his daughter Gigi in a helicopter crash. Later in the episode we recap the Sierra Canyon/Lebron James experience at the Hoophall Classic.

Farewell to a Complicated Legend

A review of the groundbreaking first season of Liberty, Justice, and Ball

Season one wrap-up

Tyrone Weeks

Former UMass star, Tyrone Weeks, the father of freshman phenom TJ Weeks, talks about his family story, growing up in Philadelphia, and the value of fatherhood.

The unique family legacy of former UMass standout, Tyrone Weeks

Jackie MacMullan

This episode focuses on women covering basketball. ESPN NBA columnist Jackie Macmullan shares her experience covering the game and reflects on the significance of the famous 1979 championship game between Michigan State w/Magic Johnson and Indiana State with Larry Bird

Jackie Macmullan on Bird/Magic and women covering hoops

Matthew Goodman

In this episode Matthew Goodman talks about his new book "The City Game" that hit stores last month. He describes his writing process and the scandal that ruined the legacy of one of the best college basketball teams of all-time.

New York Times Best Selling Author Matthew Goodman: 'The City Game'

Naomi Graves

Like the men's game, women's basketball has its roots in Western Massachusetts with many pioneer figures, including Senda Berenson, Rebecca Lobo, and Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir. Undoubtedly, Naomi Graves is on that list with a hoop journey from being a 4-time state champion at Hampshire Regional High School to being a record-setting coach at Springfield College.

A hoop, a girl, a dream: Naomi Graves' lifelong journey in women's basketball

Hoop Hall

John Doleva

Bob Ryan

Last week, legendary basketball player Bill Russell got his Hall of Fame ring 44 years after his enshrinement. Bob Ryan, legendary in his own right, talks about his long history with Russell. Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame CEO John Doleva shares the story behind the story.

Bill Russell gets his ring: Bob Ryan and Hoop Hall CEO John Doleva take us behind the scenes

Ron Thomas

This episode explores the integration of the NBA and looks at the challenges faced by African-American pioneers in the league. Our featured guest was Ron Thomas, author of "They Cleared the Lane."

Race and the NBA: An interview with author Ron Thomas, and a look at African-American pioneers

Andrew Maraniss

Vlade Divac

In this episode we explore the International journey of the game that started at Springfield College. Basketball was invented by an immigrant, James Naismith. We talk to award-winning author Andrew Maraniss whose book about basketball at the 1936 Olympics comes out today. We also feature an interview with NBA Hall of Fame Vlade Divac.

International Basketball: The Naismith legacy, Vlade Divac and Andrew Maraniss

Dan Wetzel

In this episode national award-winning Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel, provides the long view on Lebron James as a social justice figure. Wetzel has been covering Lebron since he was in high school. He recently called LeBron out for his comments about the NBA's relationship with China.

Lebron as social justice figure: Dan Wetzel provides analysis

Hosts have great rapport and knowledge, and it’s very fun spending time with them.

Great

this podcast

Liberty, Justice, and Ball

The best podcast episodes on global issues affecting everyone. Covering topics such as the #metoo movement, climate change, the impact of technology and some of the biggest global issues facing us right now. For anyone interested in learning more about the world, and some of the issues we're facing, pick an episode below and start listening! Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

OwlTail

Elizabeth Kolbert covers climate change for the New Yorker. She's the Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction. And she recently wrote a paragraph I can't stop thinking about. "The problem with global warming—and the reason it continues to resist illustration, even as the streets flood and the forests die and the mussels rot on the shores—is that experience is an inadequate guide to what’s going on. The climate operates on a time delay. When carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, it takes decades—in a technical sense, millennia—for the earth to equilibrate. This summer’s fish kill was a product of warming that had become inevitable twenty or thirty years ago, and the warming that’s being locked in today won’t be fully felt until today’s toddlers reach middle age. In effect, we are living in the climate of the past, but already we’ve determined the climate’s future."Kolbert lives, to an unusual degree, in the planet's future. She travels to the places around the world where the climate of tomorrow is visible today. She has watched glaciers melting, and seen species dying. And she is able to convey both the science and the cost with a rare lucidity. Talking with Kolbert left me with an unnerving thought. We look back on past eras in human history and judge them morally failed. We think of the Spanish Inquisition or the Mongol hordes and believe ourselves civilized, rational, moral in a way our ancestors weren't. But if the science is right, and we do unto our descendants what the data says we are doing to them, we will be judged monsters. And it will be all the worse because we knew what we were doing and we knew how to stop, but we decided it was easier to disbelieve the science or ignore the consequences. Kolbert and I talk about the consequences, but also about what would be necessary to stabilize the climate and back off the mass extinction event that is currently underway. We discuss geoengineering, political will, the environmental cost of meat, and what individuals can and can't do. We talk about Trump's cabinet, about whether technological innovation will save us, and if pricing carbon is enough. We talk about whether hope remains a realistic emotion when it comes to our environmental future.Books:-Edward Abbe’s “Desert Solitaire”-Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”-David G. Haskell’s “The Forest Unseen”-Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vox Conversations

Elizabeth Kolbert covers climate change for the New Yorker. She's the Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction. And she recently wrote a paragraph I can't stop thinking about. "The problem with global warming—and the reason it continues to resist illustration, even as the streets flood and the forests die and the mussels rot on the shores—is that experience is an inadequate guide to what’s going on. The climate operates on a time delay. When carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, it takes decades—in a technical sense, millennia—for the earth to equilibrate. This summer’s fish kill was a product of warming that had become inevitable twenty or thirty years ago, and the warming that’s being locked in today won’t be fully felt until today’s toddlers reach middle age. In effect, we are living in the climate of the past, but already we’ve determined the climate’s future."Kolbert lives, to an unusual degree, in the planet's future. She travels to the places around the world where the climate of tomorrow is visible today. She has watched glaciers melting, and seen species dying. And she is able to convey both the science and the cost with a rare lucidity. Talking with Kolbert left me with an unnerving thought. We look back on past eras in human history and judge them morally failed. We think of the Spanish Inquisition or the Mongol hordes and believe ourselves civilized, rational, moral in a way our ancestors weren't. But if the science is right, and we do unto our descendants what the data says we are doing to them, we will be judged monsters. And it will be all the worse because we knew what we were doing and we knew how to stop, but we decided it was easier to disbelieve the science or ignore the consequences. Kolbert and I talk about the consequences, but also about what would be necessary to stabilize the climate and back off the mass extinction event that is currently underway. We discuss geoengineering, political will, the environmental cost of meat, and what individuals can and can't do. We talk about Trump's cabinet, about whether technological innovation will save us, and if pricing carbon is enough. We talk about whether hope remains a realistic emotion when it comes to our environmental future.Books:-Edward Abbe’s “Desert Solitaire”-Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”-David G. Haskell’s “The Forest Unseen”-Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

Elizabeth Kolbert: We have locked in centuries of climate change

Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan delve deep on free speech for 3 hours! Somehow it gets more interesting through the episode, not less! Hear why often it's best to "be tolerant of the intolerable".
Canada tried to pass laws compelling people to use pronouns like zi and zur. Should you be compelled to call someone a certain pronoun? Jordan Peterson pushed back saying he had no problems using pronouns like zi and zur for people who have non-traditional genders, but that he had a problem being compelled by law to use certain pronouns. 
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire. 
We have gone from homosexuality being illegal in most of the west 60 years ago to same sex marriage being legal today. "Free speech is the master value because it is the value which allows us to update all other values." Sam Harris.

Free speech, only a small topic!

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos  100% off the Future Authoring Program code: "ChangeYourself" - The offer is valid until the end of Nov 30th.

The Joe Rogan Experience

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos</a> 100% off the Future Authoring Program code: "ChangeYourself" - The offer is valid until the end of Nov 30th.

#877 - Jordan Peterson

Best Episodes on Global Issues

The best podcast episodes on non-current politics. Covering topics such as universal basic income, democracy, poverty & justice and more. For anyone interested in learning more about politics that affect that world, not just now, but in the longer term. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

Roger Ailes started Fox News and is described by many as one of the main drivers of the polarisation of US politics. 
If you don't know about Ailie you should. A great place to start is the ShowTime miniseries "The Loudest Voice". 
This interview is with Joe Lindsley who worked directly for Ailes for 2 years. 
"Very earlier on, Roger called me Ailes Junior. He told my dad, 'I've never met anyone more like me than Joe.'" As the protégé of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, Joe Lindsley was closer to the man who built Fox News than any Fox executive.
Lindsley recounts how Ailes would routinely ask him to change media coverage of stories based on 'who is good and bad' and how Ailes said 'there is no such thing as truth'. 
This interview corroborates much of the TV miniseries "The Loudest Voice".

A 1st hand account of Roger Ailes

"Very earlier on, Roger called me Ailes Junior. He told my dad, 'I've never met anyone more like me than Joe.'" As the protégé of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, Joe Lindsley was closer to the man who built Fox News than any Fox executive. He helped write Ailes' speeches, sat next to him at executive meetings, and went to church with his family on Sundays. What moved the ambitious twenty-something to abandon the conservative media titan? For a deeper dive into his epic odyssey, check out Joe's memoir — Fake News / True Story: www.inkshares.com/books/fake-news-true-story

Reckonings

"Very earlier on, Roger called me Ailes Junior. He told my dad, 'I've never met anyone more like me than Joe.'" As the protégé of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, Joe Lindsley was closer to the man who built Fox News than any Fox executive. He helped write Ailes' speeches, sat next to him at executive meetings, and went to church with his family on Sundays. What moved the ambitious twenty-something to abandon the conservative media titan? For a deeper dive into his epic odyssey, check out Joe's memoir — Fake News / True Story: <a href="https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.inkshares.com%2Fbooks%2Ffake-news-true-story&amp;token=d4a977-1-1558671273247" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">www.inkshares.com/books/fake-news-true-story</a>

#18 || The defection of a Roger Ailes warrior

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair sits down with Glenn Thrush in London to discuss the relationship between American and British politics, his close relationship with the Clintons, Brexit, and the danger of approaching politics with a closed-mind.

POLITICO's Off Message

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair sits down with Glenn Thrush in London to discuss the relationship between American and British politics, his close relationship with the Clintons, Brexit, and the danger of approaching politics with a closed-mind.

Liberty, Justice, and Ball

Weekly hand curated podcast episodes for learning