Dave Zirin

Named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World”, Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for The Nation magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Winner of Sport in Society and Northeastern University School of Journalism’s ‘Excellence in Sports Journalism’ Award, Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio’s popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine and The Progressive.

Zirin’s most recent book, written with Super Bowl Champion Michael Bennett, is Things that Make White People Uncomfortable (Haymarket Books, 2018). He is also the author of Jim Brown: Last Man Standing (Blue Rider Press, 2018), and the co-author of the NAACP Image Award nominated The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World (Haymarket Books, 2011). Zirin wrote A People’s History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play, as part of Howard Zinn’s People’s History Series for the New Press (2009). A People’s History of Sports forms the basis of a documentary co-written and narrated by Zirin called Not Just a Game: Power, Politics, and American Sports, produced by the Media Education Foundation. In addition to many other titles, he has written Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket Books, 2007), with a foreword by the immortal Chuck D. His first book was What’s My Name Fool: Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books, 2005).

Zirin has brought his blend of sports and politics to multiple television programs including NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly, FX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, ESPN’s Outside the Lines, among numerous national radio programs from sports radio to National Public Radio’s Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Vibe Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Pittsburgh Courier, The Source, and numerous other publications.