Open Source is the world’s longest-running podcast. Christopher Lydon circles the big ideas in culture, the arts and politics with the smartest people in the world. It’s the kind of curious, critical, high-energy conversation we’re all missing nowadays. Be part of the action: leave a voice message to be played on the air; get in touch over Facebook or Twitter; or email us – info@radioopensource.org with show ideas, advice, requests and high-quality criticism.
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Game, Set, Match!
It’s only a game, we used to say, but this season, between the US Open in tennis and pro-football’s opening games, our wide world of sports is an arena for every kind of cultural politics in the tense time of Trump. There were hard feelings, a ‘kill the ump’ atmosphere on the tennis court of all places last weekend, around racism and sexism blurring together in the volcanic frustration of Serena Williams and the modest bow of Naomi Osaka, the player who defeated her. And then there is Nike’s “woke” branding campaign: it’s restored the back-up quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who “took a knee” for social and racial justice. He’s now the Number One sneaker salesman in Nike’s global marketplace.
We’ve been watching our HD world of 2018 in a dazzling sports mirror all week, a kaleidoscope of bodies, social culture in struggle. Fresh captions this hour, through the smoke of a war of succession, Serena to Naomi, in women’s tennis, and then the bounding cast of Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad—an idea in every frame of it, touching race, gender, resistance, just-do-it dreams, competitive struggle, and global commerce in sneakers, as well.
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