The Athletic Podcasts

Listening across sports podcasts, The Athletic usually enters the conversation through a reporter rather than as the main subject. A writer joins a team show, a ranking becomes fuel for debate, or a personnel move gets folded into the day’s news. The result is broad coverage but relatively little sustained discussion of the publication itself.

The exceptions are useful. A few episodes examine how The Athletic was built, while others treat changes there as sports-media news. Together, they offer three distinct ways in: follow its journalists into their specialties, hear other hosts test its reporting, or step back and consider the organization behind the bylines.

The reporter as the entry point

Posting Up with Tim Bontemps provides the clearest run of reporter-led listening. Three episodes put Athletic writers directly on the marquee: Episode 123: The Athletic's Gina Mizell, Episode 125: The Athletic's Bill Oram, and Episode 126: The Athletic's Anthony Slater, and a final goodbye. This is the straightforward interview route, useful when the person doing the reporting matters as much as the publication carrying it.

Team-specific podcasts make those guest appearances feel more immediate. Hockey Night In New York - A New York Islanders Podcast is brisk, locally fluent and comfortable moving from a game recap into a wider league conversation. Jeremy Rutherford joins 3/15/26 - Skin of Their Teeth! Guest: Jeremy Rutherford, The Athletic, while Chris Johnston appears in 11/30/25 - Home Woes. Guest: Chris Johnston, The Athletic. The Athletic name signals outside expertise, but the Islanders’ current mood remains the organizing force.

Level Flight: A Winnipeg Jets Podcast uses a similar arrangement in Level Flight Ep. 101: Winnipeg Jets Preseason Wrap-up + Season Preview w/ Murat Ates of The Athletic. The appeal is specificity: one team, one transition point in its calendar, and one guest attached to the publication.

On Locked On Lions - Daily Podcast On The Detroit Lions, the guest hit shares the headline with the team’s immediate situation. LIONS SQUAD SHOW: Detroit Lions ENTER Bye Week + Colton Pouncy of the Athletic Joins the Show! promises a current Lions discussion rather than a broad conversation about sports journalism. For listeners, that distinction matters. The Athletic is present through a contributor’s knowledge, not through an examination of the outlet.

There is a different emphasis on Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast. Dane Brugler, NFL Draft analyst at The Athletic foregrounds both the guest’s specialty and institutional home. Start here if your interest lies in the people occupying particular roles within sports media.

How the publication was built

For a direct organizational angle, Making Media is the strongest destination. Its measured, interview-centred style is designed for long answers about how media businesses operate. Building The Athletic with Adam Hansmann puts the company itself at the centre of the conversation. To hear the story behind the publication rather than analysis delivered by one of its writers, this is the most natural choice.

Fantasy Baseball in 15 offers a more compact, serialized route with Bonus Episode: The Athletic’s Small Business Story | Part 3 of 3. The “Part 3 of 3” billing is important: this is a defined instalment in a larger story, not a stray reference during fantasy-baseball talk. It suits listeners who prefer a bounded narrative over an open-ended media interview.

These episodes are unusual among podcasts mentioning The Athletic. Most coverage concentrates on what its journalists know or on news involving the organization; only a small portion pauses to examine the business itself.

When Athletic reporting becomes the argument

Sometimes the publication supplies the proposition that another show wants to test. Locked On Red Wings - Daily Podcast On The Detroit Red Wings does exactly that in Bright future still ahead? The Athletic ranks the Red Wings prospect pool 4th — But does it have top end talent? The ranking establishes the premise, but the question after the dash is the real reason to listen. This is fast, fan-literate hockey analysis using an Athletic judgment as the beginning of a debate.

That format offers a useful contrast with the guest episodes. You are not hearing from the writer responsible for the assessment; you are hearing team-focused hosts decide how much confidence to place in its optimistic headline. If you already know the club, this is the sharper approach for argument rather than introduction.

When the outlet becomes breaking news

Dianna Russini’s departure produces the most concentrated burst of discussion about The Athletic itself. The same development travels through several podcast formats, and the titles reveal how differently each show packages it.

Sacramento-rooted D-Lo & KC gives the news a full hour heading in 4/14 Hour 1 - Dianna Russini Out At The Athletic. Its rapid, argumentative style makes this the conversational sports-radio version: a personnel move ready to be reacted to in real time.

The Cohn Zohn is even more direct with Instant Reaction to Dianna Russini Resigning from The Athletic. There is little ambiguity about the purpose of the episode. Here, the resignation is the headline rather than one item in a rundown; choose it for that focus.

On Fescoe & Dusty, the story lands amid the daily churn of local sports talk. A Hockey Coach Mimics Royals Fans Feelings and Dianna Russini Out at the Athletic pairs it with an unrelated Royals-flavoured item, so expect a lively headline carousel rather than a single-subject investigation.

Nothing Personal with David Samson spreads attention wider still. Should LaMelo Ball have been ejected? Dianna Russini resigns from The Athletic! WNBA commissioner wild response to a question! (Episode 1439 Hour 2) places the resignation between two other stories. This is useful for a quick sports-business reaction, but The Athletic is only one stop in a multi-topic hour.

Where to start

Begin with Making Media and Building The Athletic with Adam Hansmann for the most direct account of the organization. Follow with Posting Up with Tim Bontemps and Episode 125: The Athletic's Bill Oram for a clean example of the reporter-as-guest format.

For coverage built around testing the publication’s judgment, choose Locked On Red Wings - Daily Podcast On The Detroit Red Wings and Bright future still ahead? The Athletic ranks the Red Wings prospect pool 4th — But does it have top end talent? If the sports-media news angle is what brought you here, The Cohn Zohn offers the most focused starting point in Instant Reaction to Dianna Russini Resigning from The Athletic.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.