High School Football in the Shadow of the Nation’s Capital

High School Football in the Shadow of the Nation’s Capital

Author Devon Ashby joins the show to talk about his new book on Maryland high school football. 

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

This week we speak to Devon Ashby, author of the fascinating new book PG vs MoCo: A Memoir of High School Football in the Shadow of the Nation’s Capital. Ashby goes into detail about the talent produced in the larger DMV area, why it is largely under discussed, and the important role that public schools have played in that development process.

We also have Choice Words about the fifth anniversary of the day Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem. In addition, we have a Just Stand Up award to CM Punk for his iconic return to wrestling in his native Chicago and a Just Sit Down award to all CM’s naysayers that don’t have any appreciation for fun and joy that professional wrestling brings to so many people. All this and more on this week’s show!

Devon Ashby
Twitter: @JJaxyn
PG vs MoCo: A Memoir of High School Football in the Shadow of the Nation’s Capital

Zirin
5 Years After Colin Kaepernick Refused to Stand, We Still Get the Story Wrong

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

Disobey authoritarians, support The Nation

Over the past year you’ve read Nation writers like Elie Mystal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, Jeet Heer, Michael T. Klare, Katha Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg Gonsalves, and Sasha Abramsky take on the Trump family’s corruption, set the record straight about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s catastrophic Make America Healthy Again movement, survey the fallout and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate the Supreme Court’s dangerous antidemocratic rulings, and amplify successful tactics of resistance on the streets and in Congress.

We publish these stories because when members of our communities are being abducted, household debt is climbing, and AI data centers are causing water and electricity shortages, we have a duty as journalists to do all we can to inform the public.

In 2026, our aim is to do more than ever before—but we need your support to make that happen. 

Through December 31, a generous donor will match all donations up to $75,000. That means that your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we hit the full match, we’ll be starting 2026 with $150,000 to invest in the stories that impact real people’s lives—the kinds of stories that billionaire-owned, corporate-backed outlets aren’t covering. 

With your support, our team will publish major stories that the president and his allies won’t want you to read. We’ll cover the emerging military-tech industrial complex and matters of war, peace, and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, healthcare, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights, and much more. At the same time, we’ll imagine alternatives to Trumpian rule and uplift efforts to create a better world, here and now. 

While your gift has twice the impact, I’m asking you to support The Nation with a donation today. You’ll empower the journalists, editors, and fact-checkers best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration to account. 

I hope you won’t miss this moment—donate to The Nation today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Editor and publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x