This week’s guest is Matt Futterman, reporter for the New York Times and author of Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed and Players: How Sports Became a Business.
Matt, who spent 15 days in hotel quarantine so that he could cover the Australian Open, talks about his time in isolation and what is was like to emerge into a semblance of normal life. He explains why sports aren’t really sports without fans, how close the Australian Open came to not happening, and why Sofia Kenin isn’t a bigger star.
I also take advantage of Matt’s extensive knowledge of distance running to ask whether the unique schedules of marathoners provide any insight into how tennis players can better manage the pandemic, how tennis pros can gain some of the benefits of being part of a team, and which active player would run the fastest marathon.
Thanks for listening!
(Note: this week’s episode is about 48 minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
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Music: Everyone Has Gone Home by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2020. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: spinningmerkaba
Podcast housekeeping:
- In case you haven’t heard, I’m one month into a short (~4 minutes) daily podcast called Expected Points. Here’s today’s episode.
- The TAP book club will reconvene next week with our next selection, John Updike’s 1968 novel, Couples. Read along with us, share your thoughts, and suggest topics/questions/comments for our discussion in a future episode. (Yes, I know I said “next week” last week, too. This time I mean it. Probably.)