Talking Sports Issues With Ralph Nader

We have a very special guest on this episode of our Sports Forum podcast: Ralph Nader.  Nader is a long-time consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate.  He was named one of the “100 Most Influential Americans of the 20th Century” by Time magazine.  Nader is also the founder of League of Fans. Our conversation begins with a discussion about how he became interested in sports as a child, and who his favorite baseball team and player is.  We then talk about why he formed the League of Fans, and turn to several sports issues he’s interested in, including the focus on spectator sports vs. participatory sports in the United States, the decline of physical education and intramural sports during a childhood obesity epidemic, concussions and CTE, and the need for a National Sports Commission.  We touch on a couple additional sports issues as well, highlighted by Nader's rant about the ubiquitous, obnoxious in-game ads on baseball radio broadcasts. Towards the end, we spend a few minutes talking about an affliction called Sports Syndrome and conclude with a Nelson Mandela quote and a short discussion about sport’s potential to positively impact society.