Sports Literati

This month, the Sports Literati convene to discuss Arnold Schwarzneggar's classic sports memoir about his early days as a bodybuilder and his quest to go from Mr. Universe to Hollywood.

This month, the Sports Literati sit down to ponder and ruminate over one of the most high brow, intellectual books they have ever read. Okay, maybe not. But it just might be one of the most fun books they've ever read.

This month on the Sports Literati, we get out of our comfort zone and test our range by reading David Epstein's ideas about the power of diverse groups and why early specialization might not be great for children.

The Sports Literati reconvene to talk about the beautiful game, through the lens of Franklin Foer's classic soccer book How Soccer Explains the World, first published in 2004.

The Sports Literati revisits one of the seminal sports books of the 1990s: The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith. A close examination of the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls, we talk about an up and coming Michael Jordan and how misery just might breed success.

The Sports Literati convene to discuss how the United States 8 man crew rose from the depths of the Great Depression to take down the big, bad Nazis at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The Sports Literati enter the world of mixed martial arts for the first time, as they dissect the memoir of Rickson Gracie, the undefeated legend of Brazilian Jujitsu.

The Sports Literati take a look at Kent Babb's fly-on-the wall account of the 2019 Edna Carr high school football team as it sought a fourth consecutive Louisiana state championship. The book examines the hopelessness afflicting young, urban, blacks in a city with one of the highest rates of gun violence in America, but only a stone's flow from the affluent tourist neighbourhoods of New Orleans. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

The Sports Literati convene to discuss John Krakauer's seminal classic about an ascent on Mount Everest that goes horribly wrong. What constitutes a sport? How do intelligent human beings manage to make such a series of bad decisions? Join us as we make an ascent into the world of mountaineering.

This week, the Sports Literati convene to discuss Linsanity, one of Dave's favourite topics (try to guess which Dave!). Matthew Salesses is a Korean American writer who has written, as far as we know, the first literary novel based on Jeremy Lin's epic period of wonder with the New York Knicks in 2012. Join us as we take a look at this novel and discuss the impact of Linsanity on race, literature, and basketball.

The Sports Literati turn back the pages on a hockey classic, Peter Gzowski's The Game of Our Lives, a behind the scenes account of the 1980-81 Edmonton Oilers, led by a young Wayne Gretzky. They also discuss hockey as Canada's national myth, and whether it is still at the core of Canada's national identity today.

This month, the Sports Literati reconvenes to discuss the memoir of their collective, favourite basketball player of all time! And no, it's not Lebron James!

This month, the Sports Literati reconvenes to discuss Mike Tyson and his totally raw and visceral autobiography Undisputed Truth. Is Mike Tyson a good guy or a bad guy? Who's the biggest villain in Tyson's life? Join the Sports Literati as they go deep on one of the most famous and infamous athletes, if not people, of his generation.

This month, the two Daves convene to discuss America's past time. They reminisce about their own memories of baseball and listening to games on the radio before diving into Jared Diamond's book about how the new science of hitting has revolutionized the game in the last decade.

The Sports Literati sit down to talk about Scottie Pippen, the 1990s Chicago Bulls, and that big, bad, bald elephant in the room, Michael Jordan. If you're a casual basketball fan who only knows about Michael Jordan, or a basketball diehard who wants to know where Scottie Pippen ranks in the list of all time greats, this is the show for you. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

The Sports Literati sit down to talk about America's Team, also known as the Greatest Sports Team of All-Time according to Dave Hsu, the 1990s Dallas Cowboys. They break down the behind the scenes antics, the Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson feud that tore the team apart, and celebrate the much maligned Barry Switzer on this trip down nostalgia lane.

The Sports Literati returns after a hiatus to discuss The Sports Gene by David Epstein, a book that examines the science and genetics behind elite level sports performance. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

In this episode from the Sports Literati Vault, the two Daves step out of their comfort zone and talk about Soccernomics, a book that tries to make sense of the analytics of world soccer, and answer such vital questions as why certain countries and clubs succeed at soccer and others don't. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

In this Sports Literati Classic episode, the two Daves sit down and discuss The Victory Machine: the Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty by Ethan Sherwood Strauss. They talk about the factors that went into the fall of the Golden State Warriors dynasty, and look at the psyche of their misunderstood superstar, Kevin Durant. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

The two Daves dig into one of the most highly touted sports books in recent memory, Open by Andre Agassi. Andre Agassi was a child tennis prodigy who eventually became one of the top players in the world. If you followed sports in the 1990s, you couldn't have missed Agassi's fancy hairdos, neon coloured outfits and elaborate marketing campaigns. In Open, written a few years after his retirement, Agassi takes us with him as he recounts the story of growing up with a tennis obsessed father, through his life on the professional tennis tour, all the way through to his retirement from the game in 2006. Does this book belong in the Sports Literati Pantheon of Sports Books? Have a listen and find out! Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.

The Sports Literati take a look at the business side of sports and the early years of one of the foundational brands in the modern sports world. Shoe Dog is a bestselling memoir of Nike's early years as told by the company's founder, Phil Knight. The book traces the origins of Nike from a humble, bunch of salesmen selling a Japanese track shoe named the Onitsuka Tiger out of the back of their trunks, to one of the most recognizable brands in the world. In this episode, Dave and Dave discuss such vital questions as, is Nike a serious running shoe company or just a marketing brand? What about sweat shop labor? And most of all, what is the deal with the Nike Air?

The Sports Literati induct the founding book title into the Pantheon of Sports Literature. The Game by Ken Dryden was published in 1983 and remains quite possibly the most highly regarded hockey book, if not sports book, of all time. Ken Dryden was a Hall of Fame goalie for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s, and later became a writer and a Member of Parliament in Canada's federal government. He was also the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1990s. The Game follows a week in the life of Dryden during the 1978-79 season, as his Canadiens march towards a possible fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. The two Daves break down The Game in detail, and try to understand its place in the hockey canon as well as figuring out where a contemporary audience might stand on it, given the changes in the NHL and with the Montreal Canadiens over the last forty years.

This month, the two Daves sit down to discuss Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL by Michael Lombardi. They follow Lombardi behind the scenes on Bill Walsh's 49ers dynasty teams and Bill Belichek's Patriots, and try to learn about the inner workings of what goes on on a professional football team.

In the premiere episode of The Sports Literati, Dave and Dave break down Three-Ring Circus by Jeff Pearlman, a scintillating look at the Shaq-Kobe Lakers dynasty of the early 2000s, from the dark days following Magic Johnson's retirement through to the story of one of the first failed super teams, with Karl Malone and Gary Payton in 2003-2004. This book is an in depth portrait of a madcap basketball dynasty, and especially its two famous superstars, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. The Sports Literati talk about the Lakers, their own memories of watching Kobe the gunslinger, and then try to make sense of Kobe's complicated life. Intro and Outro Music: Sergei Rachmanioff Prelude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32 performed by Justina Sam.