TED launches “Good Sport,” new sports podcast with Jody Avirgan

TED and sports. It may not seem like the most obvious combination, but here at TED we’ve long understood that the world of sports has crucial ideas worth spreading. We’ve had Serena Williams on the TED stage talking about competitive edge, heard from Billie Jean King on perseverance and saw Alex Honnold teach us to conquer our fears. We’ve had talks from David Epstein on why athletes are getting stronger and faster and Chris Kluwe on how augmented reality can help both players and fans.

Our new podcast, Good Sport, follows our curiosity deeper into the wide world of sports, finding surprising insights and telling great stories along the way.

Hosted by veteran sports producer Jody Avirgan in conversation with superstar athletes, journalists, sports psychologists and more, Good Sport is a show that uses sports as a lens to explore big ideas around work, leadership, psychology and science. Avirgan will explore fun and puzzling questions such as: Is “the zone” a real place, and can brain stimulation enhance performance? How do stadiums influence local politics? Is it still baseball if you’re wearing a giant banana suit? How do great coaches create talent hotbeds? And is the future of sports gender-blind?

This is definitely a show for sports fans, but it’s truly for anyone who wants to understand what sports can teach us about ourselves. The first episode drops January 30 on Apple Podcasts and February 8 everywhere else.