30 for 30 Podcasts

THROUGH THE FLAMES: REGGIE'S CHURCH

<p>NFL Films producer Courtland Bragg investigates the mysterious 1996 burning of Reggie White’s church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in the process, shines a light on the grea...

TRAILER: THROUGH THE FLAMES: REGGIE'S CHURCH

<p>NFL Films producer Courtland Bragg investigates the mysterious 1996 burning of Reggie White’s church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in the process, shines a light on the grea...

THE BAG GAME Episode 1: The Making of Billy Preston

<p>To unravel how a top college recruit’s NBA dreams ran into a sprawling federal investigation, reporter Paula Lavigne explores his early years. Billy Preston and his mom str...

THE BAG GAME Episode 2: Nichole and the Bag Man

<p>Billy’s mom Nichole lets her son focus on improving his game. Meanwhile she fields all the onlookers who want Billy on their team. To play for a top college, Billy couldn’t...

THE BAG GAME Episode 3: The Sting

<p>The NCAA’s amateurism rules kept schools from paying players like Billy, so money wouldn't sway their college decision. But Paula learns how the youth teams delivering top ...

THE BAG GAME Episode 4: Plausible Deniability

<p>Federal prosecutors tell the college sports world, “We have your playbook." As court cases begin, details come out on secret payments. Who made them and for whose benefit? ...

TRAILER: THE BAG GAME

<p>ESPN and 30 for 30 Podcasts present "The Bag Game." Investigative reporter Paula Lavigne shines light on the biggest pay-to-play scandal in college basketball, through the ...

PINK CARD Episode 1: Red Girl

<p>Growing up Iranian American, Shima Oliaee found her mother didn’t talk much about where she came from. Watching soccer, though, was a portal to Iran, a place that was in la...

PINK CARD Episode 2: The Mannequins

<p>This episode starts with two questions: If women equally led the 1979 revolution, why were their rights stripped away first? How does this happen to an emboldened part of t...

PINK CARD Episode 3: The White Scarves

<p>One game sets off a movement. In 1997 Iran surprisingly makes the World Cup in the last three minutes of play against Australia. When Iran's national team gets helicoptered...

PINK CARD Episode 4: Blue Girl

<p>(<em>Warning: this episode includes description of a suicide). </em>The newest generation of Iranian girl soccer fans take a bold new approach. They cross-dress as men to s...

TRAILER: PINK CARD

<p>In Iran, women are banned from soccer stadiums. But some dare to defy that. From 30 for 30 Podcasts, Pink Card tells a story of Iranian women fighting for their rights acro...

THE LONGEST GAME

<p>Baseball holds its records sacred. Most home runs, strikeouts, career wins. But what about the longest game ever? That honor goes to a 1981 AAA game, when the Pawtucket Red...

A STREETBALL MIXTAPE

<p>Streetball. It's a style of basketball defined by trash talk, windmill dunks, no-look passes, and broken ankles. You can find streetball at city parks and rec centers, driv...

THE KING OF CRENSHAW BONUS: The Xtra Lap

<p>Nipsey’s life story lives on in his music, but only a handful of people witnessed Hussle in creation mode. Meet the brothers behind the beats and hear some of the secrets o...

THE KING OF CRENSHAW Episode 4: Neighborhood Nip

<p>Nipsey traveled across the world, but all of his love and loyalty funneled back to the community that raised him. With the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue a...

THE KING OF CRENSHAW Episode 3: Songs in the Key of Life

<p>There are a ton of descriptions that could properly summarize Nipsey Hussle’s music career. But “overnight” isn’t one of them. A decade-plus-long journey through time that ...

THE KING OF CRENSHAW Episode 2: Where You From?

<p>Nipsey Hussle is a Los Angeles icon, but what’s the story behind that? Before the fame, he was Ermias Asghedom, a young kid coming of age in the South Crenshaw district. Li...

THE KING OF CRENSHAW Episode 1: To Live and Die in LA

<p>When Nipsey Hussle was murdered on March 31, 2019 in front of his South LA clothing store, the tragedy elicited immediate tributes across industries, walks of life, and int...

TRAILER: THE KING OF CRENSHAW

<p>The King of Crenshaw is a four-part podcast series that will focus on how the late Nipsey Hussle’s life, death, and legacy deeply impacted the sports world. This series aim...

MARCH 11 2020

<p>Americans woke up on March 11 2020 in one reality and, by the time they went to sleep that night, they were living with a new one. Hear the story of the day everything chan...

TRAILER: MARCH 11 2020

<p>There has perhaps been no greater event in recent history that has so clearly underlined how integral sports are to our culture than the coronavirus pandemic has. March 11 ...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 7: The Unraveling

<p>Martha has turned the U.S. women’s gymnastics program into a world powerhouse. But as Martha is taking her final victory lap at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the gymnastics com...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 6: The Rise of Martha

<p>For years, Martha Karolyi avoided the spotlight — appearing only as the mysterious and subservient partner of her boisterous husband. But when she is tapped to take over th...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 5: The Karolyi Way

<p>After the glory of winning gold in Atlanta, the U.S. National Team slips on the world stage, finishing last in the finals at the 1999 World Championships. With the next Oly...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 4: Home Games

<p>Pulled back onto the world gymnastics stage by the precocious talent of their newest protege, Dominique Moceanu, Bela and Martha are all in on winning gold at the Atlanta G...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 3: The Bela Show

<p>Growing his image as the most well-known coach in gymnastics, Bela builds his brand and aims for more gold medals with a new star athlete. But after his champion fails at t...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 2: American Hustle

<p>After defecting from Romania, the Karolyis begin to build their gymnastics empire in the U.S. But they need a champion. Enter Mary Lou Retton, the bubbly teenager whose per...

HEAVY MEDALS Part 1: Made in Romania

<p>In the middle of the Cold War, Romanian gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi turn Nadia Comaneci, a 14-year-old gymnast from a Communist country, into a global symbol...

TRAILER: HEAVY MEDALS

<p>For 40 years, as athletes came and went, there was one constant presence in Olympic gymnastics: Bela and Martha Karolyi — the most successful coaches in the sport's history...

CURSED AND BLESSED

<p>According to local legend, the Louisiana Superdome was always a haunted place. First plagued by construction problems, then years of bad luck for the host Saints team -- by...

THE FALL OF THE CONDOR

<p>During qualifying for the 1990 World Cup, Chile's national team felt that it needed to be "more bandits than the bandits." Driven by an intense desire to eliminate rival Br...

OUT OF THE WOODS

<p>World-class biathlete Kari Swenson was on an afternoon trail run in the mountains near Big Sky, Montana in July 1984 when two men blocked her path. Reported by ESPN's Bonni...

THE SPY WHO SIGNED ME

<p>For legends Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, life in the WNBA paled in comparison to the lavish treatment they received in Russian professional basketball, courtesy of their tea...

TRAILER: SEASON SIX

<p>The new season of 30 for 30 Podcasts launches November 12th, with four new stories spanning four sports and three continents. The new episodes will tell a range of fascinat...

THE STERLING AFFAIRS Part 5: Not Fit

<p>The Donald Sterling story comes to an end where it all started -- with a showdown in court. This time, though, it was Donald vs. Shelly. The Sterling Affairs is hosted by R...

THE STERLING AFFAIRS Part 4: Fallout

<p>When the explosive tape of Donald Sterling broke, it came at a moment when power in the NBA was changing. Players, owners, and a new commissioner were faced with a major te...

THE STERLING AFFAIRS Part 3: Property

<p>Donald and Shelly Sterling escaped poverty, reinvented themselves, and became the biggest residential landlords in LA. But in housing and basketball, they never had to face...

THE STERLING AFFAIRS Part 2: The Opposite of Showtime

<p>Throughout the 80s and 90s, the Clippers were horrible and Donald Sterling was known as the worst owner in sports. But Donald Sterling wasn't the joke we all thought he was...

THE STERLING AFFAIRS Part 1: That Tape

<p>A domestic battle boils over and sends the NBA into crisis when secretly recorded tapes of Donald Sterling and his mistress V. Stiviano leak on TMZ. The Sterling Affairs is...

TRAILER: THE STERLING AFFAIRS

<p>A story of power and scandal in Los Angeles. When an audio recording of a racist rant by Clippers owner Donald Sterling was leaked online, it caused an uproar that changed ...

BACK PASS

<p>The 1999 Women's World Cup transformed Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and the National Team into celebrities overnight. They used their newfound fame to launch the world's first wo...

RICKEY WON'T QUIT

<p>At age 46, Rickey Henderson refused to walk away from the game of baseball. This is the story of a baseball legend doing everything he can to keep playing the game he loves...

THE LOOPHOLE

<p>In 1995, star pitcher Hideo Nomo attempted to do what no Japanese player had done since 1965 - join Major League Baseball. Nomo and his agent hatched a plan to overcome the...

SIX WHO SAT

<p>Before the 1970s, women were not welcome at the world's great marathons, but a few brave pioneers sought to challenge that system. Six Who Sat tells the story of two iconic...

ALL IN: SPARKING THE POKER BOOM

<p>The 2003 World Series of Poker should not have been a success. Its host casino teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, internet qualifiers knocked out the most marketable stars...

JUICED

<p>At the end of his career, Jose Canseco, the self-proclaimed "godfather of the steroid era," was effectively forced out of baseball. As revenge, Canseco conceived a tell-all...

TRAILER: SEASON FOUR

<p>Our new season of five original audio documentaries starts Tuesday, October 16th. We'll bring you stories about Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson, a protest at the NYC Maratho...

BIKRAM Part 5: Reckoning

<p>Members of the Bikram community wrestle with Bikram's behavior, their own complicity, and the question, "Can Bikram the yoga be separated from Bikram the man?" Reported by ...

BIKRAM Part 4: Truth

<p>As Bikram's darkest behaviors begin to emerge, the community devoted to his yoga is forced to face the truth about its leader. Reported by Julia Lowrie Henderson.. More inf...

BIKRAM Part 3: Power

<p>Bikram claims ownership over his brand of yoga using increasingly hardball tactics. Julia investigates the roots of yoga to try to separate what is true from what is false ...

BIKRAM Part 2: Process

<p>Bikram spreads his brand of hot yoga through teacher trainings, where he puts his most devoted followers through nine weeks of intense suffering and begins to reveal the co...

BIKRAM Part 1: Arrival

<p>Bikram Choudhury begins his journey to fame, wealth, and scandal in 1970s Los Angeles. He takes Beverly Hills by storm, using his Hollywood connections and rags-to-riches o...

TRAILER: BIKRAM

<p>In the early 1970s, a young Indian yogi named Bikram Choudhury used his Hollywood connections to launch a hot yoga empire. America's fitness obsession brought the Speedo-cl...

MADDEN'S GAME

<p>To different generations, John Madden has been a different kind of icon: coach, broadcaster and, since the late 1980s, video game mogul. This is the story of how Madden lin...

THE LIGHTS OF WRIGLEYVILLE

<p>When the Tribune Company bought the Chicago Cubs in 1981, its executives saw nighttime baseball as a way to turn around the club's fortunes. The only problem? Scores of Wri...

NO RULES: THE BIRTH OF UFC

<p>Who is the ultimate fighter? A wrestler? A boxer? A martial arts master? The first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship set out to answer that question. The results were vio...

HOODIES UP

<p>The story of a protest photo taken in 2012 by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat. Reported and hosted by Jody Avirgan. More at 30for30podcasts.com</p><p> </p><p>...

TRAILER: SEASON TWO

<p>Our new season of original documentaries launches on November 14th. Read more at 30for30podcasts.com</p><p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://...

THE FIGHTER INSIDE

<p>How does a professional boxer, convicted of armed robbery in 1975, end up rising in the ranks of the sport -- from inside a state penitentiary? The Fighter Inside is the un...

A QUEEN OF SORTS

<p>In 2012, poker star Phil Ivey pulled off an elaborate baccarat scheme that won him over $20 million and landed him in court. But Ivey had another card up his sleeve - secre...

ON THE ICE

<p>Twenty years ago, hundreds of women answered a classified ad seeking adventurers for an all-women trek to the North Pole - no expedition experience necessary. On the ice, 2...

YANKEES SUCK

<p>How a chant and a shirt came to dominate one of baseball's biggest rivalries, thanks to a group of hardcore punks from Boston. Reported by Julia Lowrie Henderson. Hosted by...

THE TRIALS OF DAN AND DAVE

<p>The 1992 Summer Olympics produced a great many heroes, but that spring TV viewers were led to believe they were all about Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson -- decathletes compet...