On the NBA Beat Ep. 187: "The Six Pack" Book Special With Brad Balukjian

On the NBA Beat Ep. 187: "The Six Pack" Book Special With Brad Balukjian

From On the NBA Beat by Aaron Fischman, Loren Lee Chen

September 4, 2024 · 47 min · Season 10 · Episode 1

About this episode

Brad Balukjian discusses his new book 'The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania' and the intersection of myth and reality in sports journalism.

Sports writer and scientist Brad Balukjian stops by to discuss his fascinating, thought-provoking and important new book, The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania . Here are some highlights – 5:29-5:49: “The book really is about the line, the border between fiction and fact or myth and reality and work and shoot in Kayfabe terms. … to really find out where myth blends into reality and where that line is.” 9:34-10:09: “I was trained on more of that participatory journalism style, which you don’t see as much of anymore, but I was reading Gay Talese and Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe and all these practitioners in the ‘60s of kind of first-person narrative journalism. And that was what I always wanted to do ‘cuz I just think that if you can do it well you put the reader in your shoes, and they can kind of experience things as you experience them.” 25:25-25:54: “I’ve always been more of a process than destination person. So I always knew that even if I didn’t get every person to talk to me, what I could always tell is my own story and the story of trying to get someone to talk to you. And I think if you’re honest and you bring the reader in and you show them what…

People in this episode

Guest: Brad Balukjian

Topics covered

  • WrestleMania
  • journalism
  • sports writing
  • myth and reality

Keywords

  • participatory journalism
  • first-person narrative
  • Kayfabe

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania

Books & works: The Six Pack", The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania

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