Podcast Episode 101: Author Larry Olmsted on the Benefits of Sports Fandom

This week’s guest is Larry Olmsted, author of the fascinating new book Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Understanding. Larry is on Twitter as @TravelFoodGuy, and you can find out more about the book at his site. While there’s not much tennis in the book, the topic should be of interest to all sports fans. Plus, Roger Federer turns up in Larry’s USA Today op-ed published yesterday.

We talk about how sports are like religion… and also like the Grateful Dead, whether individual sports offer the same health and happiness benefits as team sports, how the in-person fan experience has changed, what we can learn from American Ninja Warrior, and why the world is so full of sports bars.

Thanks for listening!

(Note: this week’s episode is about 46 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

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