PODCAST · news
Sportly
by Immigrantly Media
Sportly is hosted by Emmy-winning investigative journalist Kavitha A. Davidson. Created by Immigrantly Media, it takes you beyond the scoreboard to uncover the hidden histories and rich cultural legacies that make sports truly unforgettable. Sportly brings listeners a fresh perspective on sports each week—did you know that the oldest international cricket rivalry is between the United States and Canada? Or that the NBA’s first minority player was of Asian descent? With deep dives into iconic moments, lesser-known rivalries, and the fascinating evolution of traditions like the national anthem in American sports, Sportly is here to expand your love of the game. Each episode explores stories that transcend stats, celebrating the diversity of players, the cultures they represent, and the unique events that shape our favorite sports. Tune in every Monday for thought-provoking insights, heartwarming anecdotes, and thrilling highlights that
Episodes
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BMX Ace Daniel Sandoval on Riding to Victory Through the Pain
Daniel Sandoval has spent two decades near the top of action sports, and this year he helped deliver one of the wildest finishes in X Games League history, riding through injuries doctors told him to sit out and sealing his team's championship in the final minutes. In this conversation he talks...
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How the Extreme Games Evolved Into the X Games League
This week, Kavitha Davidson traces how ESPN's X Games built the stage that made Tony Hawk, Dave Mirra, Travis Pastrana, and Shaun White into household names - and how it's evolved into the X Games League, the team-based reboot that just posted a 78.5% ratings jump in its first summer season, and...
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The Star-Spangled Banner's Sporting Journey [July 2024]
Step into the bleachers of Comiskey Park, where the Boston Red Sox face off against the Chicago Cubs in the 1918 World Series. With America deep in the throes of World War I, baseball offers a brief escape from the harsh realities of war and loss. This pivotal game, featuring Babe Ruth as the Red...
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Feed Drop: All Bets Are Off: How Sports Gambling Has Conquered the World [Burn It All Down]
Sportly is handing over the feed to our friends at Burn It All Down today. Listen to our previous episode with Amira and Jessica on Heated Rivalry here. Amira, Brenda, and Lindsay review how sports betting has seeped into politics and provided the stuff of fantasies for people in dire economic...
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How Pakistan Women's Football Survived to Make Its FIFA Debut
For decades, Pakistan's women football had no federation support, no funding, and no path to international competition. They built their own anyway, starting with a single club founded in a Karachi backyard and growing into a movement that survived internal warfare, government interference, and...
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Why a Basketball Court Belongs in Every Prison (January 2025)
This episode is a rerun of "Courtside Stories: Rivalries, Redemption, and Prison Reform?" Prison sports are about to become California law. Before the policy fight, hear from the men inside San Quentin on what the game has meant to them - and from the critics who say programs like these teach the...
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FIFA Series: The World Cup Is Over, but There Are Unanswered Questions
In the final episode of our FIFA series, host Kavitha Davidson sits down with Jeff Rueter, soccer correspondent for The Guardian US and formerly a staff writer at The Athletic, to unpack how this World Cup actually ended. Jeff, who spent the tournament embedded with the U.S. men's national team,...
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Kabaddi 101: Tag, Tackle, Triumph (March 2025)
Part wrestling, part tag, part martial arts, and all breath control. In this episode, Kavitha dives into the world of kabaddi, the high-octane South Asian sport that's quietly going global. You'll meet fearless raiders, strategic defenders, and women breaking barriers through the sport. With…
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FIFA Series: What World Cup Fans Are Discovering About the Real America
World Cup 2026 fan culture takes center stage as Kavitha Davidson explores the viral moments defining this tournament - from Scottish fans turning Boston into "New Scotland" to Dutch, Norwegian, and Japanese supporters going viral worldwide. But beneath the wholesome clips lies a deeper story of...
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Dinking Around: The Rise of Pickleball (September 2024)
Sportly was recently featured in Forbes, where Kavitha spoke about what makes this show's approach to sports storytelling different. Read it here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankracioppi/2026/06/15/sports-podcasts-are-looking-to-score-that-golden-goooaalll/ What do you get when two friends, a...
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Strawberries, Sneakers & Scandals: The Traditions That Define Wimbledon (July 2025)
Why does Wimbledon still require all-white outfits? Why do fans queue overnight just for a chance to buy tickets? And what do strawberries and cream have to do with elite tennis? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson serves up the fascinating traditions that make Wimbledon unlike any...
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Knicks Special: How All of America Was Rooting for New York
The Knicks won the NBA championship for the first time since 1973, and so Kavitha Davidson threw out our production schedule. In this special episode, she recaps her chaotic week: attending games, doing live broadcast commentary for New York Post Sports, flying to LA on no sleep, and surviving…
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FIFA Series: Who Gets Rich When the World Cup Comes to Town?
The FIFA World Cup 2026 is here, and with it comes the familiar promise: billions in economic activity, a tourism boom, and a windfall for host cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But according to Jules Boykoff, professor of politics at Pacific University, former U.S. U-23…
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Dave Zirin on Media Narratives and the Politics of Sports (Dec 2024)
This week on Sportly, Kavitha Davidson sits down with acclaimed political sports writer Dave Zirin for a no-holds-barred conversation about the intersection of sports, politics, and society. They discuss the idea of “dual realities” in media and how race, gender, and representation are often...
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The World Cup Hack: How Diaspora Players Are Rewriting Soccer’s Rules (June 2025)
What happens when national pride meets global identity? Morocco’s epic World Cup run in 2022 wasn’t just a Cinderella story; it was a masterclass in building a team from abroad. In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson unpacks how foreign-born players are transforming international…
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Jason Belmonte Was Born to Bowl But Is He the Greatest of All Time?
Jason Belmonte or "Belmo" is widely considered one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the sport. However, if you ask him, he's not done yet. With 15 major championships and records that may never be broken, he is methodically chasing a legacy that would put the debate to rest once and for...
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Feed Drop: Muhammad Ali - Boxing, Fame and The Trap | From Big Lives
What happens when a Black icon refuses to make white audiences comfortable? Today, we’re sharing a preview of a new podcast, Big Lives, and a special episode about Muhammad Ali. Every week, hosts Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi dig into the BBC archive to explore the story behind the icons who…
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How Art But Make It Sports Matches Viral Sports Moments to Fine Art
The creator of "Art But Make It Sports", LJ Rader, is a lifelong sports professional who has worked for NBC Sports, won an Emmy, and spent nearly a decade at Sportradar, all while quietly teaching himself art history through museum visits, auction houses, and gallery trips. What started as a...
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Who Gets to Be a Pilates Girl? (April 2025)
This is a re-run of Sportly's April 2025 episode: "Pilates Wasn't Always White - Here's What Changed " Pilates may be marketed as a path to wellness and elegance, but who is it really for? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson explores the complicated racial and cultural history of...
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Why Baseball Might Be America's Most Spiritual Sport
What does faith have to do with baseball? More than you might think. "Baseball Beyond Belief" is a new documentary that explores the deep and often surprising connections between spirituality and America's favorite pastime. In this episode, Kavitha Davidson sits down with two of the people behind...
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Is Wrestlemania Still for the Fans?
WrestleMania 42 promises all the spectacle fans have come to expect, with headline matches like Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton and CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns carrying deep personal stakes and years of history. On the surface, the event has all the ingredients of a classic. Larger-than-life...
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Why Mets Fans Don’t Need Championships
This week Kavitha interviews journalist and author A.M. Gittlitz about his new book Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team. Kavitha and Gittlitz unpack the long history behind the New York Mets, from their 19th-century roots tied to political machines like Tammany...
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Feed Drop: The Breakthrough
Sportly brings you an episode from Hysteria: A Basketball Podcast, which explores why Indiana sits at the heart of the sport, and how the women’s game has finally reached a long-awaited breakthrough. Women’s basketball is having a moment, but the rise of the game has been decades in the making.…
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Why Shutting Down Streameast Didn’t Fix Sports Piracy
StreamEast is gone. Or at least, it was. In 2025, one of the largest illegal sports streaming networks in the world was taken down in a coordinated international operation involving law enforcement across multiple countries. Domains were seized. Arrests were made. For a moment, it looked like the...
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Has the World Baseball Classic Outgrown Team USA?
The World Baseball Classic has been electric - packed stadiums, global stars, and teams playing with a level of joy that Major League Baseball doesn’t always capture. So why does Team USA feel like the only team not having any fun? In this episode, Kavitha Davidson breaks down what the WBC is...
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Feed Drop: AITA? I'm Co-Hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada
In 2018, when the United States, Mexico, and Canada were selected to co-host this year’s World Cup, it sounded like fun: three friendly democracies throwing the world's biggest soccer party. LOL. LMAO, even. To kick off Season 2 of An American Game, Tom and Kirk take a look at our (longer than…
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How Formula One Driver Management Decides Champions (June 2025)
This is a re-run of Sportly's June 2025 episode: "Let Them Race? McLaren Vs. Red Bull’s F1 Strategy War " What happens when McLaren lets its star drivers race without limits and Red Bull doesn’t? The 2026 Formula One season is officially a "hard reset" for the sport. With a total regulation...
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Feed Drop: Making Sense of Global Qualifying for the 2027 Women's World Cup (Courtesy of The Athletic and Full Time)
In this feed drop episode, Tamerra and Jillian, hosts of the Full Time podcast, set the stage for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. They break down how qualifiers work and examine disparity in resources and opportunities across countries. While the U.S. women’s national team has been...
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Sarah Spain Breaks Down Olympic Drama & Women’s Ice Hockey
This week on Sportly, Sarah Spain joins host Kavitha Davidson from the Winter Olympics to break down the biggest sports controversies of the past week, from viral outrage cycles to political optics, and what they reveal about media literacy in the age of social media. We unpack how misinformation...
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Why This Is America’s Best Figure Skating Team at the Olympics in Over 20 Years
In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson sits down with figure skating expert Jackie Wong to break down the unprecedented comeback story that has the skating world buzzing. For the first time in 24 years, Team USA is sending three legitimate Olympic medal contenders to compete in women's...
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Patriots vs. Seahawks: Redemption, Revenge, and a Super Bowl Rematch
Eleven years after one of the most defining moments in Super Bowl history, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks face each other again in Super Bowl 60, with the media framing the matchup as a story of redemption and revenge. On this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson is joined by...
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Feed Drop: Have A Dance Party And Lighten Up with Angela Ruggiero
Today's feed drop is from Good Game with Sarah Spain. Olympic hockey legend Angela Ruggiero joins Sarah to discuss what hockey has given her on and off the ice, how she thinks the PWHL will impact U.S./Canada dynamics in Milan, and how she’s seen media coverage change since she helped Team USA…
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Will the Enhanced Games Redefine Doping and the Future of Sports?
What happens when elite athletes are allowed and encouraged to use performance-enhancing drugs? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson is joined by sports journalist Jacob Whitehead to examine the launch of the Enhanced Games, a proposed international sporting competition that openly...
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Will Heated Rivalry Make Hockey More Inclusive?
We don’t usually talk about TV on Sportly. But Heated Rivalry made it impossible not to. What started as a quiet adaptation of a romance novel turned into a full-blown cultural moment—one that pulled queer love, masculinity, and hockey’s long-standing blind spots into the spotlight. NHL teams...
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Courtside Stories: Rivalries, Redemption, and Prison Reform? (January 2025)
What if a basketball game could offer more than just a win? For the final episode of 2025, we revisit San Quentin, where the Golden State Warriors face off against incarcerated players in a decade-long rivalry that’s redefining second chances. But are these programs as beneficial as they seem, or...
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2025 in Sports: Legacy, Scandals, and the Stories That Shaped the Year
As 2025 comes to a close, Sportly looks back at a year that reshaped sports far beyond the scoreboard. Host Kavitha Davidson reflects on defining moments across leagues and borders—from historic performances by A’ja Wilson and Shohei Ohtani to the cultural impact of the NBA’s new media era, the...
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Joon Lee on the Cost of Being a Sports Fan
Former ESPN journalist Joon Lee joins Sportly host Kavida Davidson for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about what comes after leaving the sports media “mothership” and why the industry is undergoing a fundamental shift. Lee reflects on being laid off from ESPN, how the brand continues to…
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From Palermo’s to The Sports Bra: Inside the Evolution of the American Sports Bar (October 2025)
Sports journalist, Kavitha Davidson explores how bars once built for straight, white men evolved to include women, immigrants, and queer communities, creating a new sports culture. (This is a re-run of a popular Sportly episode.) What do beer-soaked bleachers, immigrant taverns, and feminist bar...
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The NCAA’s Financial Freefall with Jesse Dougherty
College sports aren’t just expensive; they are financially upside down. In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson sits down with Washington Post college sports reporter Jesse Dougherty for a sharp, clear-eyed breakdown of the NCAA’s spiraling money crisis. The episode cuts through the…
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The Haudenosaunee Created Lacrosse, but They’re Still Fighting to Play Under Their Own Flag
Lacrosse didn’t begin in prep-school hallways or elite East Coast programs; its roots sit firmly with the Haudenosaunee, the Indigenous creators of North America’s oldest sport. As lacrosse returns to the Olympic stage for the first time in 75 years, the community that invented the game may once...
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Is Steph Curry Walking Away With Under Armour's Future?
Steph Curry is officially leaving Under Armour, ending one of the most surprising and influential athlete-brand partnerships in modern sports history. But how did a relationship that reshaped sneaker culture, revived an apparel company, and built a $173 million business line come undone? In this...
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Inside the NBA’s Struggle to Keep the Game Honest
In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson investigates the rapidly unraveling world of NBA betting, where a player’s performance, injury reports, and gambling odds collide in ways that threaten the game itself. From Terry Rozier’s flagged exit and Jontay Porter’s ban for betting on his…
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Pulling Goat In Buzkashi: the Controversial National Sport of Afghanistan
In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson takes you into the world of Buzkashi, beyond the dust and spectacle to uncover how a game played with a headless goat became a symbol of Afghan pride, politics, and power. From its rumored roots in Genghis Khan’s army to its modern-day revival…
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How Toronto Blue Jays Became Canada's Team
For the first time in 32 years, the Toronto Blue Jays are back in the World Series, and all of Canada is rallying behind them. In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson dives into how the Blue Jays rekindled Canada’s love for baseball, from George Springer’s unforgettable homer to…
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Spogomi: Japan's Trash Picking World Cup
In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson dives into how Spogomi became the world’s most unexpectedly competitive eco sport and why it might just change the way we see clean-up duty. Every year, hundreds of athletes from around the world gather in Tokyo, not for soccer, but for trash.…
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Turf Wars: Why NFL Players Are Demanding Grass Over Artificial Fields
When Malik Nabers’ knee buckled at MetLife Stadium, it reignited an old question: Is artificial turf silently destroying NFL careers? In this episode of Sportly, host Kavitha Davidson investigates the ongoing turf-versus-grass debate from Aaron Rodgers’ 2023 Achilles tear on turf to Odell Beckham...
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From Palermo’s to The Sports Bra: Inside the Evolution of the American Sports Bar
What do beer-soaked bleachers, immigrant taverns, and feminist bar owners have in common? They all shaped the modern American sports bar. From Palermo’s Tavern in St. Louis, often recognized as America’s first sports bar, to The Sports Bra in Portland, the first bar dedicated entirely to women’s...
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From Rural India to Harvard: The Power of Girls Soccer
In this powerful solo Sportly episode, Kavitha Davidson takes listeners inside her travels to Jharkhand, India, where she witnessed the life-changing work of Yuwa School. What began when village girls asked American educator Franz Gastler to teach soccer has grown into a movement fighting child...
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From Stumps to Stadiums: How Cricket Became an International Sporting Phenomenon (July 2024)
Keep up with Sportly on Instagram: @sportlypod Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below…
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Free Agency and Players Unions: How Athletes Won the Fight for their Rights
Keep up with Sportly on Instagram: @sportlypod Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Sportly is hosted by Emmy-winning investigative journalist Kavitha A. Davidson. Created by Immigrantly Media, it takes you beyond the scoreboard to uncover the hidden histories and rich cultural legacies that make sports truly unforgettable.
Sportly brings listeners a fresh perspective on sports each week—did you know that the oldest international cricket rivalry is between the United States and Canada? Or that the NBA’s first minority player was of Asian descent? With deep dives into iconic moments, lesser-known rivalries, and the fascinating evolution of traditions like the national anthem in American sports, Sportly is here to expand your love of the game.
Each episode explores stories that transcend stats, celebrating the diversity of players, the cultures they represent, and the unique events that shape our favorite sports. Tune in every Monday for thought-provoking insights, heartwarming anecdotes, and thrilling highlights that
HOSTED BY
Immigrantly Media
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Sportly have?
Sportly currently has 107 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Sportly about?
Sportly is hosted by Emmy-winning investigative journalist Kavitha A. Davidson. Created by Immigrantly Media, it takes you beyond the scoreboard to uncover the hidden histories and rich cultural legacies that make sports truly unforgettable. Sportly brings listeners a fresh perspective on sports...
How often does Sportly release new episodes?
Sportly publishes regularly with 107 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Sportly?
You can listen to Sportly on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Sportly?
Sportly is created and hosted by Immigrantly Media.
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