The Greatest: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon on Muhammad Ali

The Greatest: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon on Muhammad Ali

The directors of the new Ali documentary talk about bringing a larger-than-life figure back down to earth.

Dave Zirin
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

On September 19, PBS will debut the new documentary Muhammad Ali by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, and on this week’s show we speak to them about how to bring a larger than life figure back down to earth and what they learned from the project.

We also have Choice Words about the IOC’s shocking and casual display of anti-Asian racism from Thomas Bach. In addition, we have Just Stand Up and Just Sit Down awards to, respectively, ESPN personality Jay Williams and NFL Network’s Rich Eisen for speaking out about the need to get vaccinated, and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith for his stupid and bigoted comments about baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani and the Nigerian Olympic basketball team. We also have a tribute to hip-hop legend Biz Markie, who recently passed. All this and more on this week’s show!

Ken Burns
Twitter: @KenBurns
PBS director profile

Sarah Burns
Twitter: @sarah_l_burns 
PBS director profile

Dave McMahon
Twitter: @DavidMMcMahon
PBS director profile

Zirin
Anti-Asian Racism and the 2020 Olympic Games

Thank you for reading The Nation!

We hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.

Throughout this critical election year and a time of media austerity and renewed campus activism and rising labor organizing, independent journalism that gets to the heart of the matter is more critical than ever before. Donate right now and help us hold the powerful accountable, shine a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug, and build a more just and equitable future.

For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and moral clarity. As a reader-supported publication, we are not beholden to the whims of advertisers or a corporate owner. But it does take financial resources to report on stories that may take weeks or months to properly investigate, thoroughly edit and fact-check articles, and get our stories into the hands of readers.

Donate today and stand with us for a better future. Thank you for being a supporter of independent journalism.

Thank you for your generosity.

Dave Zirin Dave 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