Journalist, author and sports commentator Jemele Hill is back in the podcast business. The longtime ESPN and current The Atlantic contributor is teaming with iHeartMedia for “Spolitics,” which debuts Thursday on the iHeartRadio app and all other major audio platforms. New episodes of the show will publish on subsequent Thursdays. Hill and her guests will have varied discussions spanning sports, race, gender, sexuality, social issues and politics, including such topics as immigration, voting rights, gender equity, affordable housing and reproductive rights. Some initial guests scheduled include sports personality Dan Le Batard, former NFL player LeSean McCoy, Michigan Lt. Gov Garlin Gilchrist, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Roland Martin, Errin Haines and Claressa Shields.
“I’m very excited to join iHeartPodcasts family during this critical time in American politics,” Hill said in a statement. “Sports and politics always have been connected, and on this podcast, I’ll be exploring that deep connection with important newsmakers and smart people. The goal is to use the unifying element of sports as a lens to make people better understand that politics touches every corner of our lives.”
“Spolitics” joins iHeartMedia’s slate of political podcasts with Reasoned Choice Media, which aims to provide a platform for “diverse voices and perspectives” throughout the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle.
In the premiere episode, Hill discusses with Le Batard his career as a sports media personality, his life growing up as the child of Cuban exiles and how it shaped his perspective on politics. She will also be joined by Bill Rhoden, author of “Forty Million Dollar Slaves,” to discuss the history of sports and politics dating back to George Washington’s presidency in the 1700s.
Hill is co-founder of Lodge Freeway Media and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. She’s also the author of the 2022 “Uphill: A Memoir,” a volume covering her “tumultuous childhood, complicated family dynamics and her life-saving journey into journalism.”
An Emmy-winning journalist, Hill initially joined ESPN in 2006 as a national columnist. She eventually was a regular on such ESPN shows including “SportsCenter,” “First Take,” “Around the Horn,” “The Sports Reporters” and “Outside the Lines.” She and co-host Michael Smith began the daily sports discussion show “His & Hers,” which originated from their popular podcast of the same name, in 2013. She and Smith later were co-anchors for the 6 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” before she left the network in 2018. Hill and longtime friend, former ESPN anchor Cari Champion, launched a weekly, late-night show on Vice TV called “Cari & Jemele: Won’t Stick to Sports” in 2018. She is also executive producer of former NFL quarterback and civil-rights activist Colin Kaepernick’s documentary, “Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick,” which was originally slated to air on ESPN and is directed by Spike Lee. However, the documentary’s future is now uncertain. In addition, she is currently developing a comedy series with actor Gabrielle Union.
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