Beyond Sport Recommends: The Long Game podcast

December 9, 2022

In October, Doha Debates, an organization that fosters debates and conversations for people to understand all sides of an issue and seek consensus together, announced the second season of its The Long Game podcast.

Co-produced by Doha Debates and FP Studios - the podcast production arm of Foreign Policy magazine – the show highlights stories of courage and conviction on and off the field. Season two explores the many stories of athletes who are fighting for change, including Rohingya refugees who play soccer in order to share their stories as genocide survivors, and the WNBA Players Association president who fought to bring US basketball player Brittney Griner home from a Russian prison.

The Long Game is hosted by activist and Olympic Medalist (fencing), Ibtihaj Muhammad, who was the first Muslim American woman in a hijab to compete and medal for the United States. Muhammad brings listeners around the world as she speaks to fellow trailblazers and activists who are taking on global challenges.

“As divisions on social, geopolitical, scientific and other issues become more entrenched, people retreat into echo chambers and refuse to listen to a spectrum of perspectives. We believe that positive, meaningful change only happens when we build bridges among a diversity of viewpoints,” states the organization and we couldn’t agree more.

Here are some of our recommendations:

Episode 7: “Athletes Join the Fight for women’s rights in Iran.”

Since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iran’s morality police, the country has been gripped by violence as women and men protest for women’s rights and fundamental change. 

How do sports play in politics? Many athletes walk a thin line between representing their government and speaking out against it. Journalist Sanya Mansoor explains what this looks like in Iran.

Episode 2: “Using Football to spread the word about the plight of the Rohingya.” 

More than 100 million people worldwide are forcibly displaced. This means 1 in every 78 people on earth has been forced to flee their homes (UNHCR). 

Robi Alam was born in a refugee camp in Bangladesh and emigrated to Australia with his family when he was 10. He started playing football with his fellow Rohingya informally, but as their passion grew, they formed an official club – Rohingya United. Now there are teams across Australia, Canada, the US and other countries.

Episode 1: “Nneka Ogwumike on Brittney Griner and the politics of pay inequity.” 

In Februrary 2022, WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was detained and imprisoned in Russia. In November, she was transferred to a penal colony near Mordovia to serve a nine-year sentence. 

The season two premiere featured Los Angeles Sparks star and WNBPA president, Nneka Ogwumike, who spoke about the efforts she and others in the league made to keep the spotlight on Griner and the injustice of the case, as well as Ogwumike's quest to end pay inequity. UPDATE: On December 8, Griner was released in a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. 

Episode 6: “Biking through the Pain of War.”

At least 108 million people were killed in wars in the 20th century. And, according to the UN, currently a quarter of humanity lives in conflict-affected areas. 

In 2015, Rebecca Rusch and Huyen Nguyen set out to bike 1,200 miles of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as strangers from once-opposing countries. The two cyclists navigated the infamous trail through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, carrying the weight of their personal connections to the land. The journey challenged not only their physical capabilities but their notions of war, pride, sorrow and loss.

The Long Game episodes release every Thursday and are available at DohaDebates.com/podcasts and on other platforms including Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Castbox. 

Doha Debates was a Champion Partner of Beyond Sport United 2022 where they moderated a panel on Collective Action in Civic Engagement.