The Other 51

06/06/2025

🎙️NEW EPISODE! LINK IN STORY AND BIO! 🎙️

“It was the stories that I woke up the next day thinking about … I want complicated stories about complicated people making difficult choices and facing real things.”

Journalist, professor, and author Jane McManus () joins us this week to talk about her career, The Year’s Best Sports Writing, her new book and more.

Jane was the editor of the 2024 edition of The Year’s Best Sports Writing. She and Brian do a deep dive into what that job actually looked like. Jane describes how she got the gig, how Richard Deitsch helped her, how she leaned on a group of fellow journalists as an advisory board, and what she was looking for in picking the best sports stories. We talk about the importance of scene setting at the start of a feature story, of showing the work that the reporter has done, and the deep reporting you see in a great piece of investigative journalism.

They also talk about her introductory essay, a form Brian has studied at great length.

Jane also talks about her book, The Fast Track, and why this was the book she wrote at this stage in her career. She describes the biggest differences between writing articles and a book, and why she doesn’t want her students to outsource their thinking by letting AI do any writing.

“There’s no Tik Tok, there’s no short form video on YouTube, hot-take sports talk show that is going to force you to think about something the way that at a well written long form piece of journalism does.”

05/06/2025

Last minute update! Tomorrow our chat with Jane McManus is live!

22/05/2025

🎙️NEW EPISODE! LINK IN STORY AND BIO! 🎙️

“The challenge is to make you love Lloyd and make you realize that Lloyd is extraordinary and that you realize that before Lloyd does.”

Will Leitch returns to the show to talk all about his new book, “Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride.” which is out now and you should totally buy!

Will describes how a pre-pandemic visit to a family friend helped plant the seed for the book’s premise, and how that premise allows him to address the existential angst that parents are feeling about the world they’re leaving their kids. Will also reveals the biggest challenge in writing Lloyd as a character, why he wrote the book in the present tense, and how all of his novels have clocks in one way or another.

Will and Brian talk about the action sequences in the book, how they were influenced by Will’s love of movies and how listening to The Donnas was Will’s secret for those scenes. They also talk about how Will’s excellent weekly newsletter influenced parts of this book.

“I want you to feel the entire time like this is happening right now.”

21/05/2025

We’re back tomorrow with talking all about his excellent new novel. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

11/04/2025

“I never really thought about it as something I would ever do a story on. I didn’t even think of it in terms of a story … these were just our friends.”

from ESPN joins us for a deep dive into his moving feature story on the friendship between Abby Zittoun and the UConn women’s basketball team.

Sam discusses the intensely personal nature of this story for him, how he navigated being both a friend and reporter in telling Abby’s story, and why being transparent and intimate as a journalist is so vital to doing stories like this. He also talks about how he dealt with the personal pressure he felt writing this story.

Sam and Brian also discuss the writing and reporting of the story. The details make this story so memorable, but how does Sam know he has the right details, and how do you keep from overwhelming the reader with them? Sam also talks about how he avoided making an inherently sad story like this feel like a long march for the reader. This is not a story about grief, it’s the story about an amazing young girl, her family, and the connection she had with this team.

“I want Abby to be alive for as much of this story as possible.”

10/04/2025

New episode drops TOMORROW and it’s a special one. My friend joins me to talk about the friendship between the UConn basketball team and an incredible young woman. Subscribe now to get it first thing Friday.

28/02/2025

🎙️NEW EPISODE! LINK IN BIO AND STORIES! 🎙️


Author, journalist and screenwriter Michael Weinreb joins Brian to talk about newsletters, carving out a writing career in the digital world, the intersection of sports, politics and culture and the value of works in progress.

27/02/2025

New episode drops TOMORROW! talks about his career, Grantland, newsletters and more! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the places.

06/02/2025

06/02/2025

🎙️NEW EPISODE! LINK IN BIO AND STORIES! 🎙️
sielski joins us for a deep dive into writing and reporting his new book, “Magic in the Air: The Myth, the Mystery, and the Soul of the Slam Dunk.”

Mike talks about dodging rattlesnakes in Texas, stretching his writing muscles, and how he wanted this book to surprise people with its depth and stories.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

05/02/2025

We are BACK! Our first new episode of 2025 is out on Thursday. Friend is the show .sielski joins us to talk about his new book. Subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.