Dear Adam Silver

Sister of the Co- Host, Meg Smithson, is on to discuss her own journey with basketball and her on the ground takes on Knicks fever! Works Cited: Link to article about Mitchell Robinson's political beliefs. Please share, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts.

Dear Adam Silver listeners! It has been a minute! I am glad to be back at the mic and sharing a conversation that touches on themes of family, expectations of gender and health trauma all via the topics of basketball and astrology......very timely for Mother's Day. I am excited to share my conversation with interdisciplinary artist, educator, mystic and Team Captain of New Craft Artists in Action (NCAA) Maria Molteni, who is back on the show (first featured on Episode #32: Maria Molteni and Basketball Magic). Maria and I unpack the wonderfully complicated and nuanced Senda/Sedna zine that we worked on together this past November, which includes an essay about Senda Berenson (founder of women’s bball) and an essay about Sedna 90377 (Maria's favorite Trans-Neptunian Object). The printing of this zine coincided with the release of Maria’s Star Ball, which was created based on the design of the Cosmic Court in Fall River, MA that Maria painted alongside local students and NCAA members. On this episode we discuss the zine, the ball and all of the themes and concepts that they offer to us. Please be aware that Maria and I are very candid on this episode and discuss on our struggles with our body, some relating to infertility, and familial trauma. You can find the Senda/Sedna zine for sale here and the Star Ball on sale here and you can follow Maria on Instagram @strega_maria

Dr. Johanna Mellis is an Assistant Professor of History at Ursinus College where her research focuses on international sport during the Cold War, namely in the Eastern Bloc and Hungary especially, in order to connect the local voices and experiences of Hungarian athletes to the IOC and broader international sport society. Her manuscript, Changing the Global Game: Hungarian Athletes and International Sport During the Cold War, examines Hungarian sportspeople’s interactions with the International Olympic Committee from 1948-1989. Changing the Global Game shows how Hungarian athletes, Socialist Hungarian state sport officials, and the IOC gradually realized by the 1960s that sporting cooperation with one another - and not East-West political clashes nor resistance - was the way to achieve their respective aims of sport success, career and financial stability, and political and institutional strength. Our conversation covers many different topics, but we do repeatedly come back to a consistent theme of unlearning our early understandings of world history through sport to form a better, more accurate, and historically inclusive narrative.  You can follow Dr. Mellis's amazing and well curated Twitter feed @JohannaMellis. As I share in the podcast, my eyes have been opened to a multitude of different historical perspectives on sports through Dr. Mellis's Twitter account.  Dr. Mellis also cohosts the End of Sport Podcast, a podcast on capitalist sport, labor, and justice for end times. The show features interviews with athletes, critical sports journalists, and fellow academics to explore all the ways that people use sport to harm others - i.e. through racist mascotry, the NCAA and higher ed’s exploitation of Black and Brown college athletic workers, sexual abuse and harassment, transphobia, and more. You can read Dr. Mellis's writing alongside her End of Sport cohosts in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, The Guardian, Time, The Baffler, and more. She also has sole-authored pieces with The Washington Post and Arizona State University’s Global Sport Matters. As always, thanks for listening! Please share, rate and review Dear Adam Silver wherever you get your podcasts. 

Bradley Robert Ward is back on the pod (listen to Episode 21 for our previous conversation about bball and some of his older work!!) to discuss his research and new work about the Negro Leagues and his own relationship with baseball, as a fan, former player and image maker. Our conversation was timely for many reasons, one of them being that the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers was just this past Friday, August 28. Bradley and I discussed the failures of MLB to adequately address the systemic racism that exists both in their past and contemporary existence and how this connects to a larger issue within the US, where BIPOC histories are regularly left out of the historical narrative and misremembered, romanticized or forgotten by our mainstream media.   You can view Bradley's artwork on his website and follow him on Instagram here.   Thank you to Bookman's for sponsoring this episode of Dear Adam Silver. 

Seattle based Art Director Dwayne Mansfield is on the show today to discuss his new and evolving brand Hoops and Horticulture and the concept behind his handmade basketball planters. His dedication to exploring the idea of growth through basketball and plants is at the crux of this work.  Follow Hoops and Horticulture on Instagram here and please check out his Etsy store and support his work here. The planters are elegant, thoughtfully designed and a must have for any bball fan/plant collector.  Thank you to Bookman's for sponsoring this episode of Dear Adam Silver. 

Professors Kyle Green, Stephen Cho Suh and Alex Manning are on the pod to discuss their collectively written paper entitled Discursive Footwork on the Hardwood.  This piece of writing focuses on four NBA players speaking out on the topics of cultural appropriation and both systemic and individual acts of racism through essays published on The Player's Tribune. The paper unpacks the possibilities and limitations of working to address and dismantle racism within the institution of the NBA,  which is known to be a more progressive space in comparison to other major sports leagues in the United States.  The four essays that are referenced and analyzed in the paper are linked to below. Blake Griffin Jason Collins Jeremy Lin Kyle Korver We also get into ALL of the WNBA/NBA reopening news, including how players and leagues will go about continuing their activism once they are on the court. Kyle Green is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at SUNY Brockport. Check out his website and learn more about his podcast Give Theory a Chance here.  Stephen Cho Suh is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s & Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.  Alex Manning is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hamilton College. 

Kyle Depew is an activist,  the owner of Brooklyn Film Camera, a wonderful photographer and a dear friend from my time living in New York City. Kyle and I first met when we worked together at The Impossible Project, which is a company that made new film for vintage Polaroid cameras (now known as Polaroid). After we both left Impossible, Kyle started his own company and shop called Brooklyn Film Camera in Bushwick where they sell film and film cameras of all types. In addition, BFC organizes events for image makers and film enthusiasts and their staff is available for photographing events. Kyle uses his love for photography to create and foster community and tell stories. He was a wonderful coworker and I'm grateful for his thoughtfulness and care.  Check out and support Brooklyn Film Camera for all your film and camera needs (seriously, get an SX-70)! And follow them on instagram @brooklynfilmcamera.  Please note that Kyle and I spoke over two weeks ago so, of course, much has happened since then that is not included in our discussion.