For my capstone, I wanted to open up a discussion about what it means to have an athlete’s mindset and how influential it can be on an individual’s life, especially for student-athletes. I decided that the best way to do this during the COVID-19 pandemic would be to host a podcast.

Hence, The Understanding Athletes Podcast was born. The Understanding Athletes Podcast contains five episodes in total, each ranging from 10-20 minutes in length. Each episode of the podcast features a different student-athlete, whom I interview about their experiences as a student-athlete and how the lessons that they have learned from those experiences better equip them to tackle challenges that they are faced with outside of sports and the classroom.

The goal of The Understanding Athletes Podcast is to educate individuals who have not experienced being a student-athlete about how impactful athletics can be for individuals who have experienced it. Athletics are more than just a sport, it is a way of life. Sports teach you how to conduct yourself on and off the mat/field/court, molding individuals into leaders, and I would like to make more people aware of how much having the mindset of an athlete can do for them.

I hope that The Understanding Athletes Podcast allows everyone to have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a student-athlete, and possibly motivates people to try a sport or athletic activity themselves. Thank you to all of the interviewees, as well as everyone else who has helped me throughout this process. Enjoy!

As I was brainstorming my capstone project over the summer of 2020 I often found myself watching NBA Basketball games while looking through the current news of the world on my phone. I suppose the world of politics and sports being on my mind for months lead to the creation of this project. I wanted to do something that could answer why the sports world was becoming so involved in politics. I settled on wanting to work on something that would allow for my thoughts to flow and create discussions after the audience listens to it. I created a podcast series called The Political Sports Podcast. In this podcast, I discuss the different events where politics and sports have crossed over and come together. I don’t try to answer any questions with definitive statements because I want the audience to think about their own opinions. I believe I have learned a lot about the specific scenarios where sports and politics intersected. I have also learned about why these events are happening more often and what this means for the future as I discussed in the podcast. I have learned that politics have been involved in the sports community for decades, but now it is becoming more commonplace for athletes to become involved in politics. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope everyone who listens enjoys it too.

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