Luck
Luck is a six episode narrative podcast series diving into the complex football life of Andrew Luck. Hosted by The Athletic’s Zak Keefer - the series answers the question how one of the greatest quarterback prospects of all-time ended up bruised, broken, and retired from football before he turned 30 years old.
Episode one of Luck is the single most downloaded podcast episode in the history of The Athletic Podcast Network. The series was featured on the New York Times homepage and received organic endorsements from several high-level football journalists including ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
From Couva to Qatar: Remaking the USMNT
From Couva to Qatar: Remaking the USMNT is a five-part podcast series focused on the drastic transformation the US Men’s National Team underwent after the disaster of not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
Hosted by The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio and Sam Stejskal, the series intent was to introduce the USMNT to a general sports audience while providing behind-the-scene stories that would excite hardcore USMNT fans. Voices in the series include Thierry Henry, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley, Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna, Tyler Adams and USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter.
The Wednesday Game
The Wednesday Game was a one-off narrative episode that was part of a unique multimedia project created at The Athletic. The story began as a written feature on former Minnesota Twin Justin Morneau and his mental struggles with being a retired athlete. Morneau developed an invite only hockey game in a custom ice rink built in his backyard. Former MLB and NHL players in Minnesota were the regulars at the games that took place on Wednesday nights (hence the name).
The writers for the piece - Dan Hayes and Michael Russo - got incredible access that included bringing a videographer to shoot one of the Wednesday games. The narrative episode I created was a mix of the sound gathered during that shoot and interviews I did with Hayes and Russo.
Shattered: Hope, Heartbreak and the New York Knicks
Shattered was the first narrative podcast series created at The Athletic. It was an incredibly rewarding process to build this series from scratch. Shattered tracks the New York Knicks franchise in the two decades under James Dolan’s ownership. We were able to get a wide array of voices in the series - interviews with team legend Patrick Ewing, six former Knicks head coaches and executives, as well as actress Edie Falco - who participated in an amazing bit of Knicks history. The audio from Falco’s section is the audio file below.
The element that took the series over the top was having hip-hop legend Chuck D narrate the series. Chuck was beyond exceptional - hearing the words I wrote greatly improved by him was a real joy. Shattered was named a Webby Award honoree for best sports podcast.
