What Do the 1984 Olympics Teach Us? 

What Do the 1984 Olympics Teach Us? 

Sports Illustrated’s L. Jon Wertheim joins the show to talk about his new book.

Dave Zirin
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

This week we talk to L. Jon Wertheim about his new book Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever. We talk about 1984 sports, music, and what was taking place in the world that made that particular summer transformative.

We’ve also got Choice Words about Antonio Brown and his exit from last week’s Bucs-Jets game. We have Just Stand Up and Sit Your Ass Down awards to, respectively, the incredible Sidney Poitier for an incredible life lived as an actor and activist, and Aaron Rodgers who will likely win the NFL MVP and increasingly appears to be an avatar for the libertarian right. All this and more on this week’s show!

Jon Wertheim
Twitter: @jon_wertheim
Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever

Zirin
Antonio Brown Is a Damning Reflection of the NFL

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

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Dave ZirinDave Zirin is the sports editor at The Nation. He is the author of 11 books on the politics of sports. He is also the coproducer and writer of the new documentary Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL.


Ad Policy
x