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David Maraniss on the Politics of Jim Thorpe

Legendary writer David Maraniss joins the Edge of Sports podcast to talk about his new book.

Dave Zirin

July 25, 2022

American multi-sport athlete and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe (1888–1953), here of the New York Giants baseball team, waits for a pitch during a game at the Polo Grounds, New York, N.Y., 1913.(Bain News Service / Interim Archives / Getty Images)

This week we speak to David Maraniss, one of the great journalists of our time, who has written a new book on the extremely well-known but frankly little-known athletic superstar Jim Thorpe and what he faced as a trailblazing indigenous athlete.

We also have Choice Words about the 100th birthday of the legendary Rachel Robinson. We also have a Just Stand Up award for South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston for calling out ESPN’s disrespect of women athletes and we have Just Sit Down awards for the Cleveland Browns, who have cast their loss with Deshaun Watson and seem to have no shame about it. All that and more on this episode of the Edge of Sports podcast!

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Dave ZirinTwitterDave 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.


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