The Swim Brief
by Chris DeSantis
Is this your podcast?Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 14 chart positions in 14 markets.
By chart position
- 🇺🇸US · Swimming#51M to 3M
- 🇨🇦CA · Swimming#8300K to 1M
- 🇦🇺AU · Swimming#14300K to 1M
- 🇩🇪DE · Swimming#16300K to 1M
- 🇬🇧GB · Swimming#6230K to 100K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
780K to 2.4M🎙 Daily cadence·460 episodes·Last published today - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
2.6M to 8.1M🇺🇸37%🇨🇦12%🇦🇺12%+11 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
1.4M to 4.5M
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
—
Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
Recent episodes
Building Swimmers Who Want To Be There: Jonathan Kaplan
Sep 14, 2026
55m 22s
Building Culture in College Swimming’s Transactional Era
Sep 7, 2026
48m 33s
Building Women's Sports Differently: Ted Lasso Season 4
Sep 4, 2026
49m 39s
Why Swimmers Aren’t Eating Enough | Alicia Glass
Aug 31, 2026
52m 47s
To Save Swimming, Start With the Coaches | Doug Cornish
Aug 24, 2026
1h 06m 21s
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/14/26 |  Building Swimmers Who Want To Be There: Jonathan Kaplan | Send us Fan Mail What makes swimmers want to keep showing up—not because an attendance policy requires it, but because they genuinely want to be there? Jonathan Kaplan, head coach and director of SwimRVA, joins Chris to discuss a collaborative approach to coaching built around athlete ownership. Jonathan explains why he has never used an attendance policy, how coaches can teach swimmers to manage the psychological demands of practice, and what happens when an athlete’s entire identity becomes... | 55m 22s | ||||||
| 9/7/26 |  Building Culture in College Swimming’s Transactional Era | Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build a championship-level program without allowing college swimming to become purely transactional? Stanford men’s swimming head coach Dan Schemmel joins Chris DeSantis to discuss his unlikely path from Hawaii to one of the most prestigious jobs in the sport—and the moment he finally felt that he belonged there. They explore how Stanford is navigating NIL, the transfer era, and the growing pressure to treat the athlete-coach relationship as an exchange o... | 48m 33s | ||||||
| 9/4/26 |  Building Women's Sports Differently: Ted Lasso Season 4 | Send us Fan Mail Ted Lasso returns with a new challenge: building a women’s team inside a sporting structure created for men. Chris DeSantis and Juliet Suess discuss what the opening episodes of season four reveal about coaching, leadership and the systems surrounding women’s sports. They explore Coach Chilton’s technical strengths and relational blind spots, Rebecca’s failure to consider a woman for the head coaching position, the limitations of copying and pasting from the men’s game, and h... | 49m 39s | ||||||
| 8/31/26 |  Why Swimmers Aren’t Eating Enough | Alicia Glass | Send us Fan Mail Swimmers spend hours in the pool, yet many still aren’t eating enough to support the work they’re doing. Alicia Glass, Sport Dietitian for USA Swimming, joins to explain why swimmers need to think more like endurance athletes—and what happens when training volume and fueling fall out of alignment. We discuss early-morning practices without breakfast, why sugar and sports drinks can be valuable performance tools, and the practical barriers that keep exhausted athletes from eat... | 52m 47s | ||||||
| 8/24/26 |  To Save Swimming, Start With the Coaches | Doug Cornish | Send us Fan Mail Swimming has spent decades asking coaches to become more professional. But has the profession done enough to support them in return? Doug Cornish is a former swim coach, financial planner, and the creator of the 2025 Swim Coaches Compensation Survey. His findings expose how precarious coaching has become: 38% of respondents reported working without a current contract, while 80% had no cost-of-living adjustment built into their agreements. Doug and I discuss why coaches contin... | 1h 06m 21s | ||||||
| 8/17/26 |  The Making of a Head Coach | Margo Geer | Send us Fan Mail Margo Geer’s path to becoming the head coach at the University of Alabama was anything but conventional. When she took over the program at 28, plenty of people questioned whether she was ready. Six years later, Margo joins me to discuss what prepared her for the opportunity, how her experience as an elite athlete shaped her leadership, and why she was able to deal with the criticism surrounding her hiring. We also talk about protecting the health and performance of coaches, t... | 50m 34s | ||||||
| 8/10/26 |  Reflecting on 50 Years of Coaching | Don Wagner | Send us Fan Mail Don Wagner spent more than fifty years coaching swimmers at every level of the sport—from developing young athletes to coaching Olympic champion Janet Evans during the most dominant stretch of her career. In this conversation, Don reflects on the moments that defined his coaching journey, how training philosophy has changed over five decades, what he believes today's coaches get right (and wrong), and the lessons that mattered most after a lifetime on deck. We discuss: • Coac... | 48m 41s | ||||||
| 8/3/26 |  How Do Great Programs Stay Great? | Todd DeSorbo | Send us Fan Mail Todd DeSorbo has built one of the most dominant programs in college swimming history—but he says there was never a master plan. In this conversation we explore what it actually takes to sustain excellence year after year, why coaching elite athletes is more about what you do with the data than long term planning. Listen for how he thinks about recruiting, athlete development, emotional control, and building a culture that keeps producing world-class performances. Todd also sh... | 54m 06s | ||||||
| 7/31/26 |  Leadership, Responsibility, and Shame in The Odyssey | Send us Fan Mail What can The Odyssey teach us about leadership when every available choice carries consequences? Chris is joined by Juliet Seuss for a different kind of episode: a conversation about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and the questions it raises about responsibility, power, guilt, and shame. They examine whether Odysseus accepts responsibility for the people who follow him, how Penelope exercises power within an unjust system, and what Sinon’s story reveals about the shame socie... | 35m 14s | ||||||
| 7/27/26 |  We Protect Athletes. Who Protects Coaches? | Sophie Parr | Send us Fan Mail For years, conversations about athlete welfare have rightly transformed the way we think about coaching. But there's another side of the equation that receives far less attention: Who protects coaches? This week I'm joined by coach Sophia Parr (@swim.coach.sophie) for one of the most vulnerable conversations we've ever had on The Swim Brief. Sophie shares the story of being removed from a high school coaching position after months of conflict, isolation, and feeling unsupport... | 1h 02m 14s | ||||||
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| 7/24/26 |  The Parent Pressure Trap: Why Giving In Makes It Worse | Send us Fan Mail Why do parents keep intervening in coaching decisions—and why does giving in usually make the problem worse? In this solo brief, I describe the fear underneath parent pressure: the belief that failing to secure every possible opportunity means failing their child. I explore how coaches unintentionally reinforce that anxiety, why concessions invite more intervention, and how proactive communication can prevent conflict before it begins. The episode offers a practical framework... | 28m 17s | ||||||
| 7/20/26 |  The Most Important Thing a Coach Can Say After Failure | Dave Salo | Send us Fan Mail Dave Salo has coached at every level of the sport—from NCAA championships to Olympic medals—but this conversation isn't about workouts or sets. Instead, we explore the decisions that define great coaching. We discuss why process matters more than outcomes, how a single sentence can change the way an athlete experiences failure, the transition from assistant coach to head coach, what it means to lead people instead of simply managing performance, and the lessons Dave has learn... | 1h 13m 59s | ||||||
| 7/13/26 |  Debrief: Jeana Kempe | Send us Fan Mail The head coach of Swimming and Diving at the University of Illinois Jeana Kempe joins to talk influences and the path of her coaching career. | 56m 53s | ||||||
| 7/6/26 |  Debrief: David Marsh | Send us Fan Mail David Marsh tells all about what his retirement actually looks like, and what he had planned if he was National Team Director. Debrief: David Marsh Chris DeSantis ... | 1h 26m 21s | ||||||
| 6/29/26 |  Debrief: Tracy Menzel | Send us Fan Mail Tracy Menzel joins to talk GAIN, Diversity and why she’s back coaching in her hometown. Debrief: Tracy Menzel Chris DeSantis Download | 58m 09s | ||||||
| 6/25/26 |  Bonus Pod: A Day With Greg Meehan | Send us Fan Mail Recapping the day I spent following around USA Swimming National Team Director Greg Meehan at last week’s Indy Pro Series event. Bonus Pod: A Day with Greg Meehan Chris DeSantis | 25m 07s | ||||||
| 6/22/26 |  Debrief: Dave Durden | Send us Fan Mail Dave Durden joins to discuss how he approaches his unconventional start at Cal and his approaches to recruiting and hiring. Debrief: Dave Durden Chris DeSantis | 1h 00m 41s | ||||||
| 6/15/26 |  Debrief: Megan Devito | Send us Fan Mail Megan Devito, a high school swim coach and performance mindset coach, joins to talk shop on the value of coaching. Debrief: Megan Devito | 43m 21s | ||||||
| 6/8/26 |  Debrief: Kevin Ring, USA Swimming CEO | Send us Fan Mail The CEO of USA Swimming joins to share what he’s learned in his nine months on the job and what he thinks is possible for the future. Debrief: Kevin Ring | 56m 28s | ||||||
| 6/1/26 |  Debrief: Cara Stawicki | Send us Fan Mail Former National Team and World Champion rower Cara Stawicki joins to talk shop and even turns the tables on me. Links for Cara: Website: https://carastawicki.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carastawicki/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-stawicki-6059196/ Book a Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/carastawicki/discovery?month=2026-04 ... | 1h 10m 05s | ||||||
| 5/27/26 |  Solobrief: My Thoughts on the Loser Olympics | Send us Fan Mail Organizing my big picture reflections on the stupidest event in swimming history, and all the losers who tried to make it work. riverside_christopher_swim_brief (1) | 29m 15s | ||||||
| 5/25/26 |  Crossover Pod: IDGI and the Swim Brief | Send us Fan Mail Big shout out to the IDGI Podcast with Nate McKay and Kyle Johnson for helping me out with this week’s pod. Listen to hear me get interviewed by the guys, plus some thoughts on the top about the Loser Olympics. riverside_christopher_swim_brief ... | 1h 26m 26s | ||||||
| 5/18/26 |  Debrief: Glenn Mills | Send us Fan Mail Glenn Mills, the owner and founder of Goswim, 1980 Olympian and all around man about the sport, joins to talk about what he sees in the swimming world. Debrief: Glenn Mills Chris DeSantis | 1h 00m 26s | ||||||
| 5/11/26 |  Debrief: Kyle Johnson Returns | Send us Fan Mail An old friend of the podcast, Kyle Johnson, returns to share his wisdom. Kyle also has a podcast, which you can follow for me to be on soon. Debrief: Kyle Johnson Returns Chris DeSantis | 1h 04m 02s | ||||||
| 5/4/26 |  Debrief: James Marshall | Send us Fan Mail James Marshall of GAIN and Excelsior Athletic Club joins to talk how he came to coach three sports, knowledge sharing and the athletic insights of Nassim Taleb. Check out his website: https://excelsiorgroup.co.uk/ Link to James’ substack newsletter. Debrief: James Marsha... | 49m 04s | ||||||
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Chart history for The Swim Brief
Peaked at #3 in Ireland, top 10 in 8 of 14 tracked markets, currently #3 in Ireland.
| Market | Genre | Peak | Current | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | — | #3 | #3 | — |
| New Zealand | — | #4 | #4 | — |
| AT | — | #4 | #4 | — |
| United States | — | #5 | #5 | — |
| RO | — | #6 | #6 | — |
| South Africa | — | #7 | #7 | — |
| Canada | — | #8 | #8 | — |
| Sweden | — | #10 | #10 | — |
| Australia | — | #14 | #14 | — |
| Spain | — | #15 | #15 | — |
| Germany | — | #16 | #16 | — |
| Italy | — | #20 | #20 | — |
| CH | — | #22 | #22 | — |
| United Kingdom | — | #62 | #62 | — |
Chart Positions
14 placements across 14 markets.
Chart Positions
14 placements across 14 markets.