Writers talking shop, memory, and nerve.
Two Writers Slinging Yang pairs Jeff Perlman with writers for long, plainspoken conversations about how reporting and writing actually get made. The show is warm, blunt, and often nostalgic, but its real interest is the hard tradecraft behind columns, books, beats, and bylines.
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Two Writers Slinging Yang is a long-running conversation show about writers, writing, and the strange business that surrounds both. Its center is Jeff Perlman talking shop with another writer, usually with enough shared history to make the exchange feel lived-in rather than staged. The show has a strong sports-media backbone. It is not limited to sports. Recent episodes reach golf biography with Alan Shipnuck, food writing with Liz Cook, political blogging with Charlie Pierce, Yankees history with Mike Vaccaro, baseball beat work with Thomas Harding, sports gambling with Prince Grimes, newspaper column writing with Tim Cowlishaw, and magazine memory with Steve Wulf. The pace is measured. The questions often come loaded with a premise, a memory, and a judgment before the guest even answers. That is part of the appeal. A conversation might begin with gray beards in old press rooms, then turn toward contraction on the golf beat and the rise of content creators. Another might start from a political news story or a social-media post and become a broader argument about public cruelty, institutional decay, and what journalism is supposed to notice. The craft talk is practical. Guests discuss learning unfamiliar beats, admitting what they do not know, balancing criticism with fairness, losing jobs, and writing about powerful people without becoming their friends. Nostalgia is present, but it is rarely just sentimental. The show uses old newspapers, Sports Illustrated clips, ESPN the Magazine memories, and beat-writer war stories to ask what has changed and what should not have changed. It can be funny. It can be irritated. It is often sincerely moved by the work. The best fit is a listener who likes writers talking in complete paragraphs, with digressions that eventually find their point. The differentiator is the insider texture: names, clips, old jobs, old columns, and the unglamorous habits that make a writer credible over time.
Made for: For listeners who care about journalism, sports media, nonfiction books, column writing, and the working lives behind bylines. It especially suits people who enjoy veteran writers trading specific stories instead of abstract career advice.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart through its mix of sportswriter memory, craft detail, and blunt moral judgment. It treats writing as both a profession and a character test, with guests pushed toward the choices behind the copy.
Jeff Pearlman's weekly in-depth, no-holds-barred conversation with a writer on writing. Available here and on iTunes
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jeff Pearlman brings a reporter's eye to sports movies, connecting screen arguments with the experience and judgment behind sportswriting.
Jeff Pearlman builds interviews around the working decisions behind a piece: how reporters learn an unfamiliar beat, judge the force of criticism, recover old material and keep asking questions when institutions fail them.
Jeff Pearlman brings the old clips; you get the craft, bruises, and arguments behind the byline.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sports writer's path becomes a grounded look at newspapers, gambling, and a media world in transition.
Prince Grimes comes through as a USA Today For The Win writer shaped by a more local, uncertain route into the business. Jeff Perlman keeps the focus on that path, from North Carolina A&T to community newspapers, with the closing of the Gazettes giving the conversation its most…
A sports-media conversation about archives, Cowboys criticism, and restraint.
Two Writers Slinging Yang turns a complaint about the broken Sports Illustrated archive into a sharper conversation about sportswriting, memory, and restraint.
A veteran sportswriter finds the story by admitting what he does not know.
Steve Wolf's sportswriting story turns an unfamiliar assignment into a clear lesson in reporting. His path from Sports Illustrated to the early days of ESPN The Magazine sets the frame, but the piece comes alive with the horse-racing job and the enormous presence of Forgo.
A sports-movie conversation finds its edge when Field of Dreams turns into a test of sentiment and taste.
Kyle Bandujo's visit to Two Writers Slinging Yang is strongest when it treats sports-movie writing as actual craft. The talk starts with Movies with Balls and keeps returning to the work behind it: writing, tinkering, and the kind of visual instinct that can turn Roy Hobbs…
A fired local editor makes the case for why local reporting still matters.
Sarah Leach's firing by Gannett gives the episode its spine, but the stronger thread is what happens after a newsroom loses someone who knows the place well enough to make civic life readable.
Nebraska athletics, close up and week by week.
Cubs recaps with bleacher-level patience.
Jeff Pearlman interviews Sarah Leach, the former executive editor of multiple Michigan newspapers who was fired by Gannett in May 2024 after complaining about unfilled reporter positions.
Howard Bryant returns to the Two Writers Sling and Yang podcast to discuss his new book 'Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America' and reflect on being the show's first guest nine years ago.
Jeff Pearlman interviews Kyle Bandujo, author of 'Movies with Balls: The Greatest Sports Films of All Time'.
Jeff Pearlman opens Two Writers Slinging Yang with Gary Smith’s portrait of Sally Wilson Smith, then interviews Eli Hoff, the St.
Jeff Perlman interviews golf writer Alan Shipnuck about his new biography of Rory McIlroy and the challenges of sports journalism.
Jeff Perlman interviews Kansas City-based food writer Liz Cook about her career and writing process.
Jeff Perlman interviews Charles Pierce, Esquire's political blogger, about his writing and perspective on politics.
Mike Vaccaro discusses a poignant social media post about Robert Mueller's death and reflects on integrity and loss.
Thomas Harding discusses his long career as a baseball beat writer and the key to his longevity in journalism.
Jeff Perlman opens with his closet setup, “nearly 10 years” of recording there, and a pitch that aspiring journalists can “make your own break” by starting a podcast.
Jeff Perlman talks with Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw about the collapse of newspaper sports sections, from a sports department that once had about 100 people to one that now has roughly 9 or 10.
["Steve Wulf traces a career that runs from The Evening Sun in Norwich, New York, to Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and the Baseball Hall of Fame.", "He says ESPN The Magazine launched with John Skipper, John Walsh, and John Papadick, aimed at the ESPN TV audience, and branded itself as \"not your father's sports magazine.\"", "Wulf recalls learning on the job at the Fort Lauderdale News, writing horse-racing copy at Pompano Park and Gulfstream Park, and getting a manual Royal typewriter on day one.", "He revisits the Michael Jordan White Sox cover, says the New York Times and Washington Post sports sections have disappeared, and argues the economic model, not the writing, did the damage."]
Investigative reporter Sergio Olmos discusses the ongoing ICE raids in Southern California, where agents in unmarked vehicles detain Latino men without warrants, and the emotional impact of covering these events.
Jeff Perlman pays tribute to sportswriter Scott Miller and interviews legendary Boston Globe basketball writer Bob Ryan.
Jeff Perlman interviews Chris Donnelly about his book on the late 1990s New York baseball rivalry leading to the Subway Series.
Jeff Perlman interviews ESPN legend Bob Ley about his career and a memorable Jose Canseco baseball blooper.