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3Spoonies3Spoonies on Customer Service for Disabled People: Community Questions3Spoonies with Karen Duncan , Jo O’Neil and Claire Napper
Date:15th January 2026
Episode Number 46.5
In this episode look at Improving Customer Service for Disabled People: Community Questions
Click this link for more discussions on disability ? https://www.youtube.com/@3Spoonies?sub_confirmation=1
Thank you for listening to this episode of 3Spoonies! If you enjoyed this episode, we would love for you to leave us a review, subscribe for our weekly update and share it with your friends!
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2026-01-1515 min
3Spoonies3Spoonies on Customer Service for Disabled People.Podcast Notes
3Spoonies
With Karen Duncan , Jo O’Neil and Claire Napper
Date: 8th January 2026
Episode Number 46
In this episode we talk about Improving Customer Service for Disabled People.
Click this link for more discussions on disability ? https://www.youtube.com/@3Spoonies?sub_confirmation=1
Closing Remarks: Thank you for listening to this episode of 3Spoonies! If you enjoyed this episode, we would love for you to leave us a review, subscribe for our weekly update and share it with y...
2026-01-0844 min
SportsLitSportsLit (Season 9, Episode 5) - Randy Mills (Retd. Prof. Oakland City University) - As if by Magic, The Story of Larry Bird's Indiana High School Basketball DaysAs one of the greatest NBA players of all-time, Larry Bird’s life has been covered extensively.
Out of common roots in midwestern basketball and out of a passion for regional history, Randy Mills (Retd. Prof. Oakland City University) mines Larry Legend’s origin story.
In doing so, he presents the fervent foundation for the sport that existed in Bird’s home state of Indiana, using it as a base to focus specifically on the machinations of his high school basketball playing days for the Spring Valley Blackhawks from 1972-1974.
Utilizing archived stories from lo...
2025-11-251h 08SportsLitSportsLit (Season 9, Episode 4) - Tim Cherry (Producer) - The Don Cherry Story, by his Daughter, Cindy CherryDon Cherry’s Coach's Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada ended abruptly in 2019. Was it ever going to happen any other way?
Controversial and entertaining, Cherry spoke his mind to the country for 37 years in the aforementioned first intermission segment.
On Nov. 9, 2019, going over the top met with the times at hand and the contemporary media landscape. Cherry was fired by Sportsnet in what is known as “Poppygate”.
Is there more to this story? Is there more to Grapes than most care to know?
His late daughter decided she wanted to conf...
2025-06-251h 03SportsLitSportsLit (Season 9, Episode 3) - Ronnie Shuker (Journalist) - The Country and the Game: 30,000 Miles of Hockey StoriesThere is an unending well of culture to draw from when it comes to hockey in Canada.
Ronnie Shuker's bucket is full after driving across the country, 30,000 miles (or roughly 50,000 kilometres for you hosers!) in all.
After traversing the "true north", Shuker (Editor-at-Large, The Hockey News) emptied his experiences over 244 pages giving further contemporary context to a game that exists in the bones of this nation.
2025-06-0256 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 9, Episode 2) - Jane McManus (Founding Columnist - espnW) - The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women's SportsThe business of women’s sports has never had this much momentum. So what is it building on?
Jane McManus provides a real-time snapshot of where we currently are and how we got here in Fast Track: The Surging Business of Women’s Sports.
McManus has spent a career covering sports for major outlets such as the New York Daily News and was a founding columnist for espnW. Now an Adjunct Professor at NYU at the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport, she has published a book that examines the business of women's sport, focu...
2025-03-1143 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 9, Episode 1) - Russell Field (Associate Prof. - U. of Manitoba) - A Night at the Gardens: Class, Gender and Respectability in 1930s TorontoThe story, and history of Maple Leaf Gardens is well documented.
It has been described as having religious significance, there is reverence and well earned-lore. A loathsome thread exists too.
Without question it is one of the most significant buildings ever constructed in Canada and a big part of its legend is that it was completed during the early years of the Great Depression.
But what was Toronto Maple Leafs’ owner Conn Smythe’s intent? Why did he build it where he did? What crowd did he want to attract and how do those...
2025-02-1144 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 19) - Mirin Fader (Sr. Writer - The Ringer ) - Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Olajuwon left Lagos, Nigeria in 1980 and barely a year after taking up basketball, he blossomed into the game’s first international star in Houston, first collegiately with the Cougars and then with the NBA’s Rockets.
In an 18-season career he was a nine-time NBA all-star and two-time league champion. He played his last season with the Toronto Raptors. Olajuwon was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and is a member of the NBA's 75th anniversary team.
In “Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon,” biographer Mirin Fader draws on some 250 interviews...
2024-12-231h 03SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 18) - Ed Willes (Regina Leader-Post, The Province) - Never Boring: The Up and Down History of the Vancouver CanucksEvery hockey fan knows how it always ends for the Vancouver Canucks — no Stanley Cup — but Ed Willes digs in the corners to poke at the why, with a wry perspective.
The veteran journalist (Regina Leader-Post, The Province) presents a case study, with novelistic detail, about the West Coast NHL franchise. Weaving a thread — one of instability at the top — through the history (and prehistory) of the team, Willes explains why the Canucks have fallen short of winning the Stanley Cup, but have never been boring across five-plus decades of torment.
Relying on firsthand research and cont...
2024-12-021h 09SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 17) - Atiba Hutchinson (Captain - Canadian Men's National Team - FIFA 2022 World Cup) - The Beautiful DreamAtiba Hutchinson finally has space to contemplate the inner strength it takes to chase goals that were often, and understandably, hard to define.
In “The Beautiful Dream,” the retired captain of the Canadian men’s national soccer team (CMNT) lets fans and readers in on a footballer’s journey. Now retired as a player, Hutchinson delves into his early life as a first-generation Canadian growing up in Brampton, Ont. in the 1980s, and ’90s and how he navigated the uncertain path to professional success in Europe during the days when a true domestic league hardly existed.
That per...
2024-11-2152 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 16) - Jason Kirk (Sr. Editor - Newsletters - The Athletic) - Hell Is a World Without YouIn his début novel, sports journalist Jason Kirk gives readers a rigorous and referentially tight portrait of growing up in an evangelical world.
“Hell Is a World Without You” plunges readers into the world of early-2000s teen Isaac Siena Jr., his youth group friends, widowed mother Katherine, and intense big brother Eli. Its themes delve through faith, the lingering effects of being raised with “constant fear of hell, and shame, and damnation,” and being in a world where “youth pastors dress like Stifler.”
Kirk, who calls himself a “lazy Christian pantheist,” is a senior editor at...
2024-11-071h 24SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 15) - Mike Keenan (Stanley Cup winning coach - New York Rangers 1994 ) - Iron Mike: My Life Behind the BenchMike Keenan is a madman.
Mike Keenan has a method.
All things considered, both descriptions are part and parcel of a coaching career in which he angered many, and accomplished a great deal.
30 years ago he won the Stanley Cup and then abruptly parted with the New York Rangers, the team he led to the title.
Iron Mike addresses career defining events such as this and covers much more in his life’s journey through hockey.
The 1985 Jack Adams Award winner (NHL Coach of the Year) joined SportsLit to di...
2024-09-3051 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 14) - Melissa Ludtke (Groundbreaking Journalist ) - Locker Room TalkRelying on a near half-century of deep research and reflection, Melissa Ludtke recounts her landmark federal case in “Locker Room Talk.”
In 1977 and ’78, as a Sports Illustrated reporter, Ludtke was the winning plaintiff in Ludtke v. Kuhn, a U.S. federal case that Time Inc. and lawyer Fritz Schwarz Jr. brought against Major League Baseball. In the courtroom, Justice Constance Baker Motley — a civil rights icon — found that MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn had violated Kuhn’s constitutional rights by denying her the same access the male reporters had at Yankee Stadium during the ’77 World Series. Neither the legal win nor t...
2024-09-152h 09SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 13) - Michael Cochrane (Partner - BT Legal) - Olympic Lyon: The Untold Story of the First Gold Medal of GolfMichael Cochrane found an artifact of early Canadian golf great George S. Lyon hiding in plain sight one day — and set to bring him to life on the page, and on the links.
In “Olympic Lyon: The Untold Story of the First Gold Medal for Golf,” Cochrane digs deep to tell the story of the Toronto insurance salesman who captured Olympic glory in the early 20th century, to the delight of fans in the young nation of Canada. Lyon never got to defend his title, or congratulate his successor. But through deep research honed over decades as a lawy...
2024-07-221h 07SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 12) - Jerry Grillo (Journalist) - Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny MizeJohnny Mize, a top home-run hitter in a turbulent time for baseball and North America, never got a complete biography in his lifetime.
Author Jerry Grillo, who lives in the same region of rural Georgia where Mize hailed from, has remedied that by examining Mize’s baseball life and his effect on the sport.
Mize (1913-1993, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981) played in the majors during an era marked and marred by segregation, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. The lefty-hitting slugging first baseman won four league home run titles, sti...
2024-07-161h 26SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 11) - Tiffany Brown, Erin Strout, Katie Steele - The Price She PaysNew investment and enthusiasm are pouring into women’s sports.
In “The Price She Pays: Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women’s Sports— from the Schoolyard to the Stadium,” lead authors Dr. Tiffany Brown and Katie Steele call for changes to the athletic hierarchy women compete under. As lead authors, along with co-author Erin Strout, they propose that the expanding popularity and financial clout of women’s sports must be commensurate with an athlete-centred mental health approach
The book is a candid guide to all stages of the sporting life, from introductory activities up to U.S. major...
2024-07-111h 06SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 10) - Madeleine Orr (Asst. Prof., U of T) - Warming UpSport ecologist Dr. Madeleine Orr is pitching a ‘green game plan’ for sports fans.
In “Warming Up,” Orr pairs her academic curiosity and storytelling to stir optimism (or “hopeium”) about using the power of sport to explain climate adaptation. The University of Toronto professor’s début book reminds readers sports are a bigger social connector than politics, arts, and pop culture — and the loss of them can have significant mental health effects.
As such, sports is a rallying point to push for a world that must burn about five times less fossil fuels to avert worst-case o...
2024-06-271h 17SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 9) - Evanka Osmak (Anchor / Sportsnet Central) - Ali HoopsIn “Ali Hoops,” the début children’s book by sports anchor Evanka Osmak, the 10-year-old heroine just wants a place in the game.
Ali “daydreams about being a basketball star,” but frets about whether she can make her school team. Along the way, Ali learns lessons about who makes a true team off and on the floor — and illustrates how sports give a child a chance to build life skills and responsibility.
Evanka Osmak is an anchor for Sportsnet Central. She is a mother of two and has been with Sportsnet since 2007.
2024-06-0839 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 8) - Noah Gittell (Author / Critic) - Baseball: The MovieNoah Gittell is here to get the baseball movie out of its big-screen slump.
In “Baseball: The Movie,” his first book, he advocates for the return of a sports movie niche that has faded since “Moneyball” and “42” were hits in the early ’10s. Drawing on insights from fellow writers and ballplayers, Gittell shows how the baseball movie, since the time of “The Pride of the Yankees” during the Second World War, has tapped into the essentials of the American soul and identity.
A longtime New York Mets fan, Gittell’s writing has graced The Atlantic...
2024-05-161h 08SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 7) - Mary Ormsby (Journalist / Author) - World’s Fastest Man*: The Life of Ben JohnsonWhether Ben Johnson ever receives exoneration, the examination of the Canadian sprinter’s life and times by Mary Ormsby shows he got a raw deal.
Johnson became the first track-and-field Olympian to lose a gold medal for doping after a positive test at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In “World’s Fastest Man*: The Life of Ben Johnson,” Ormsby raises alarming questions about the reactions from the IOC, Canadian sports leaders, and the media — and double standards imposed on Johnson and other Black Canadian athletes at a time when steroid use was common in Olympic sports.
Ormsby, who had a...
2024-05-051h 16SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 6) - Ken Dryden (Hockey Hall of Fame Goalie 1983 / Author) - The ClassIn what might be his most ambitious work, author and hockey legend Ken Dryden affirms the value of finding our similarities.
At the start of the 2020s, Dryden sought out people with whom he shared a uniquely Canadian coming-of-age experience during an ambitious era. In the early 1960s, Dryden was part of the ‘Brain Class’ at Etobicoke C.I. — students who loved to learn. Through meetings on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in person, Dryden learned the biographies of 34-of-35 classmates to produce, “The Class: A Memoir Of A Time, A Place, And Us.”
Dryden’s c...
2024-04-181h 14SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 5) - Keith O'Brien (New York Times Best Selling Author) - Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of BaseballHow Pete Rose became so polarizing spurred Keith O’Brien to get granular in “Charlie Hustle,” which has become an instant The New York Times bestseller.
In 1989, Major League Baseball’s hit king received a lifetime ban for betting on games in which he managed his hometown Cincinnati Reds. With reportorial digging, O’Brien reminds readers of everything Rose did between the lines of MLB ballparks and off the field, and why the scandal lingers into this era of legal sports gambling.
A Cincinnati native like Rose, O’Brien draws on some 27 hours of dialogue with the bas...
2024-04-1553 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 5) - Keith O'Brien (Journalist) - Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of BaseballHow Pete Rose became so polarizing spurred Keith O’Brien to get granular in “Charlie Hustle,” which has become an instant The New York Times bestseller.
In 1989, Major League Baseball’s hit king received a lifetime ban for betting on games in which he managed his hometown Cincinnati Reds. With reportorial digging, O’Brien reminds readers of everything Rose did between the lines of MLB ballparks and off the field, and why the scandal lingers into this era of legal sports gambling.
A Cincinnati native like Rose, O’Brien draws on some 27 hours of dialogue with the bas...
2024-04-1453 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 4) - Jack McCallum (Sports Illustrated) - The Real HoosiersJack McCallum is on the case of the Crispus Attucks Tigers, a young Oscar Robertson, and purloined glory in the heartland of hoops.
In The Real Hoosiers, his 12th book, McCallum dives into why Indiana celebrates the 1954 Milan Miracle, and the film “Hoosiers,” more than Attucks. Repping a school community forced into existence in a “bewildering and openly racist big-city educational system,” future NBA assist king and players’ union leader Robertson and his teammates won back-to-back Indiana schoolboy titles barely a decade after the competition was opened to Black schools. It was the first time anywhere in America th...
2024-03-141h 30SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 3) - Morgan Campbell (CBC Sports Sr. Contributor) - My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us"Morgan Campbell’s debut memoir, “My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us” is more than a sports book — but sport is a through line.
Campbell, whose parents and a set of grandparents decamped from Chicago for Toronto during the sociopolitically turbulent late 1960s, shares much about growing up Black and learning his way in Canada when holding trenchant American roots.
It explores a rich and nuanced family tree filled with characters that can be turbulently interconnected.
Campbell is a CBC Sports senior contributor who spent close to two decades w...
2024-02-131h 30SportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 2) - Jacob Pomrenke (SABR) - Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball ClubGambling has become a new revenue stream for major sports leagues in the last few years, raising questions about how to protect competitive integrity. It also calls to mind the fallout from the Black Sox Scandal, the greatest game-fixing scandal in the history of North American sports.
In "Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club: Never Before Seen Trial Transcript," the public can finally read about a civil trial 100 years ago that laid bare the inner workings of major-league baseball. Jacob Pomrenke, editorial director of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), joins us to explain why the great Sh...
2024-01-2959 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 8, Episode 1) - Erik Kramer (Former NFL Quarterback) w/ William Croyle - The Ultimate ComebackErik Kramer built an NFL career on precision, timing, and accuracy, but it was his greatest miss that led to him building a complete life.
Since surviving a 2015 suicide attempt, the former quarterback is making his ultimate comeback day after day, living with renewed sense of purpose.
Athletically, Kramer climbed up from the "bottom of the barrel," in his words. Getting a chance to make a first impression was tough enough for a football player who was unrecruited out of high school and was undrafted by the NFL out of college. Now he is using his second chance at...
2024-01-181h 05SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 8) - Rich Cohen (Rolling Stone, Co-creator - HBOs Vinyl) - When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest SeasonNothing is ever as good as it once was. That’s a lie —they improve, or more accurately, they evolve. Still, why not look back with a bit of wonder?
Rich Cohen is the right writer to put the NBA, then and now, into perspective. In When the Game Was War: The NBA's Greatest Season, Cohen stress-tests his belief that the 1987-88 season was the zenith of pro basketball.
Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, and their long-time teammates carry a narrative about the finesse and ferocity of a different time
Like a hard foul in the p...
2023-12-261h 14SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 7) - Ted Nolan (NHL Coach of the Year - 1997) with Meg Masters - Life in Two WorldsPride and Prejudice
It could have easily been the title of Ted Nolan’s biography.
My Life in Two Worlds: A Coach’s Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back encompasses the duality of his drive to show people from his world, Garden River First Nation, could succeed in another one, whilst centering their Indigenous identity.
A career coach who has achieved success at every level, Nolan is best known for his first tenure with the Buffalo Sabres in the 1990s. He earned the NHL coach-of-the-year award in just his second seas...
2023-11-261h 24SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 6) - Doug MacLean with Scott Morrison - Draft DayThe NHL Draft is one of hockey's great spectacles. Just after the Stanley Cup is awarded, the spotlight shifts to the draft floor, where teams hope to acquire future stars and the diamonds in the rough that can lead them — or keep them — in contention.
As a former NHL president and general manager, Doug MacLean has seen the process from the inside. That is where he and Hockey Hall of Fame-honoured writer Scott Morrison take readers in Draft Day: How Hockey Teams Pick Winners or Get Left Behind. This is a book with a hook — informative with lively...
2023-11-161h 02SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 5) - Jonathon Jackson - The Making of Slap Shot (Revised 46th Anniversary Edition)Jonathon Jackson captures the spirit of the thing
Like “Slap Shot” itself, Jonathon Jackson might have been slightly ahead of his time when he set out to write about the timeless hockey movie.
Nowadays, ‘how it was made’ books, podcasts, and limited series are everywhere. But it was back in 2006, Jackson set out to write about the “nuts and bolts” that held together a raunchy, rollicking 1977 sports comedy starring Paul Newman that remains unlike any depiction of hockey put on screens before, and possibly since.
“The Making of Slap Shot” was first published in 2010, and now...
2023-11-111h 06SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 4) - Donovan Bailey (World and Olympic 100 metre gold medallist) - Undisputed: A Champions LifeAct like a champion, talk like a champion, run like a champion. Wired like a prizefighter, Donovan Bailey became the fastest man on earth in the 1990s.
He did it for himself while raising Canada's standing in international sport. In his memoir, the 100-metre and Olympic and world gold medalist tells his life story with intent.
Rooted in Jamaica and then Oakville, Ont., Bailey rocketed around the world after a belated entry into athletics. Following his triumphs on the track, his career was derailed by injuries. Decades after retirement, he makes it clear where he stands in the pa...
2023-10-2750 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 3) - Dave Hill (Comedian/Musician/Writer) -The Awesome Game - One Man’s Incredible, Globe-Crushing Hockey OdysseyDave Hill is a multitalented man, but a fan for one season — hockey season.
The comedian, essayist, and musician is meh toward his hometown NFL Cleveland Browns, but hockey had him hooked right off the hop. Over his life, it has become a source of perplexment as to why more Americans are not similarly stoked about hockey. In his fourth book, "The Awesome Game: One Man's Incredible, Globe-Crushing Hockey Odyssey," Hill seeks out hockey wherever he can find it from Nairobi, Kenya to Kemptville, Ont., showing how the game provides an emotional release that you might not find in many oth...
2023-10-251h 10SportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 2) - Justin Davis (NHL Draft choice & Memorial Cup champion) - Conflicted Scars: An Average Player’s Journey to the NHLStep into the arena. Step outside the bubble. Justin Davis offers the public a personal story of a life in hockey with all aspects considered.
What was wrong? What can be changed? What did he like? What should be maintained?
With Canada’s national winter sport facing a moral audit, check out our discussion with an NHL draft choice and Memorial Cup champion player turned high school teacher who has an inside perspective.
Conflicted Scars was released by ECW Press in October 2022. It features a foreword by Hockey Hall of Fame coach Brian Kil...
2023-05-0454 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 7, Episode 1) - John Gibbons (Blue Jays Manager - ’04-’08 / ’13-’18) - Gibby: Tales of a Baseball LiferBaseball banter comes easily to John Gibbons, but it was a hard and winding road to get to that point.
Over two stints covering 11 seasons, Gibbons won over Toronto Blue Jays fans. Getting the Jays back into pennant contention helped, but he became more relatable, a shrewd observer whom fans could imagine sharing baseball yarns and beers with up in the 500 level. Getting there involved 22 seasons in the minors, first as a catcher whose MLB days were curtailed by injuries before he moved into coaching and managing.
“Gibby” was written with past guest Greg Oliver (S1E02...
2023-03-271h 14SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 14) - Suzanne (Suzy) Wrack (The Guardian) - A Woman’s GameWhether one calls it soccer or football, the women’s game is coming into its own.
The advancements might seem brand-new considering the first World Cup was held in 1991 and the inaugural Olympic tournament kicked off in 1996.
It would also be easy to assume that the charge forward for female footy began in North America.
After all, the United States has had the most success, while Canada is the reigning Olympic champion and boasts the all-time time leading goal scorer - Christine Sinclair.
There is far more to the story.
In...
2022-12-151h 20SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 13) - Dwayne De Rosario (2011 MLS MVP) & Brendan Dunlop (Broadcaster) - DeRo - My LifeCanada ascending to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 was surely cathartic for every footballer who has worn the Maple Leaf — especially Dwayne De Rosario, one of this nation's best ever .
The Scarborough man helped grow the beautiful game in North America as one of the first stars of Major League Soccer, contributing to four MLS Cup-winning teams and twice earning Cup MVP honours. It gnawed at him, though, that the Canadian men’s national team was never able to reach the biggest stage in global sport, which in turn hurt the sport’s perception of Canadian-produced talent.
In 2...
2022-11-231h 04SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 12) - Steve Simmons (Toronto Sun Columnist) - A Lucky LifeSteve Simmons dishes it out, and Steve Simmons takes it.
He would not have that any other way. It’s been A Lucky Life.
As a national columnist with Postmedia, his articles are some of the most widely discussed amongst Canadian sports fans.
He has also appeared regularly on radio and television including TSN’s The Reporters.
Simmons began his professional writing career in 1979 at the Calgary Herald. He then shifted to the Calgary Sun right as the NHL Flames moved to town and joined his hometown Toronto Sun in 1987. He has ha...
2022-11-211h 49SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 11) - John Shannon (Hockey Night in Canada / Analyst and Insider) -Evolve or DieIn 2019, veteran live sports producer John Shannon was — no need for an euphemism — fired by Sportsnet.
As he has learned across nearly a half century in sports media, one has to evolve or die. In this memoir, Shannon writes of how he has absorbed and applied lessons that are wrapped as mortal blows in order not merely survive, but thrive in an often cutthroat field.
In “Evolve or Die,” he writes of how he had a vision, from his early life in the British Columbia interior, to be a storyteller. That aspiration led him to Toronto i...
2022-11-161h 20SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 10) - Bryan Trottier (Hockey Hall of Fame - 1997) - All Roads Home
When it was announced that Hockey Hall of Fame centreman Bryan Trottier was releasing a memoir, one had to wonder why that had not already happened.
Trottier won the Stanley Cup six times as a player and once again as an assistant coach. The son of a Cree-Chippewa-Métis father and an Irish-Canadian mother from a Saskatchewan ranching family, he also earned multiple major awards an 18-season NHL career (1975-94).
Timing is the answer.
At age 66, Trottier believes he is far enough removed from the game wher...
2022-11-0858 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 9) - Barrie Shepley (Olympic coach and commentator) - Chasing GreatnessBarrie Shepley had his eureka moment while working a summer job in an auto plant.
Captivated by Canadian swimmer Alex Baumann racing to gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Shepley realized that he wanted to be in elite sport. His skillset was best suited to being a coach.
Chasing greatness began with hustling. Starting from his residence room at McMaster University, he bootstrapped and helped triathlon move from a loose structure into something with a foundation, a fanbase and young athletes who would become its long-term future. One of them, first spotted in Sharbot Lake, O...
2022-11-011h 10SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 8) - John U. Bacon (seven-time best-selling author) - The Greatest ComebackIt only took 50 years for the original Team Canada to fully participate in a book about that September, in 1972.
John U. Bacon, a seven-time best-selling author based in Ann Arbor, Mich., was drafted to put "The Greatest Comeback" into words for a new generation.
Through unfettered access, Bacon expands upon the time-honoured narrative about the Summit Series by blending in modern hockey analytics and a historian's eye for detail. The result is a tale about optimism becoming an act of resistance.
Relive this "friendly" series with the Soviet Union that escalated into the Cold War on ice that ultimately changed hocke...
2022-10-151h 23SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 7) - Corey Hirsch (NHL goalie) - The Save of My Life: My Journey out of the DarkCorey Hirsch played 14 seasons as a professional goalie, including 108 NHL games.
He raised the Stanley Cup and came within a postage stamp goal of backstopping Canada to an Olympic Gold medal.
But the save of his life never happened on the ice.
It happened when he stopped short of driving off a cliff.
The plan was to finally be rid of intrusive thoughts he couldn’t shut off. Now he has learned how to deal with them.
Corey’s brain lies to him, it tells him things that aren’t true...
2022-10-0850 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 6) - Dan Good (Journalist) - Ken Caminiti: Playing Through the PainKen Caminiti was the type of ball player that fans loved.
He electrified third base and the batter's box with a formidable combination of grit, finesse and power.
However, it was what the one-time unanimous NL MVP (1996) did after his playing days that stands above the great fielding plays, all-star appearances and revitalizing the San Diego Padres franchise.
In 2002, Caminiti came clean about baseball's worst-kept secret.
Author Dan Good paints a portrait of a big-hearted man who lived life on the edge and how his public confession forced Major League Baseball to...
2022-09-261h 08SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 5) - Howard Bryant (Sr. Writer - ESPN) - Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American OriginalRickey Henderson is as enigmatic as he was dynamic on a ballfield.
Major League Baseball's all-time leader in runs scored and stolen bases and greatest leadoff hitter of all time vexed and perplexed teammates, fans and the media as much as he did opposition over a 25-season career.
Even up until his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, questions of who Rickey actually is and what has driven him to be so singular have remained.
In June 2022, Howard Bryant (senior writer, ESPN, and a two-time Casey Award winner) released Rickey: The Li...
2022-08-151h 25SportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 4) - Les Stroud - Around the World with SurvivormanWe finally landed Survivorman.
Les Stroud is a creator who is best known for his world famous TV show, but he is also a musician and an author.
In March 2021, he released Wild Outside: Around the World with Survivorman, his first book aimed at a youth audience. It recently won a Yellow Cedar Award presented by the Ontario Library Association for nonfiction books intended for readers in grades 4 to 8.
Using condensed and illustrated versions of his adventures, Stroud intersperses nature facts with advice on spending time outside, no matter where that is.
2022-07-1054 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 3) - Tyrone (Muggsy) Bogues - MuggsyTyrone (Muggsy) Bogues is one of the most recognizable “names” in NBA history.
At five-foot-three, he is the shortest player to ever play at basketball’s highest level and he succeeded with four teams across 14 seasons during the rugged 1980s and '90s. A testament to his focus, talent and toughness.
In April 2022, he released Muggsy: My Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball, written with Jacob Uitti (Triumph Books).
Muggsy pays tribute to a loving family who supported him through his maturation into a true player from inn...
2022-06-1557 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 2) - André Lachance & Jean François Ménard - Team ChemistryJust Win Baby!
Sounds simple enough, but how do you get there?
Talent alone isn't always the answer.
The inner game is often the hardest aspect to manage.
André Lachance (Manager – Women’s National Team - Baseball Canada 2004 – 18) and Jean François Ménard (Author - Train (Your Brain) Like an Olympian) have years of practical and professional experience in mental performance coaching from boardrooms to a baseball diamond and even the circus (Cirque du Soleil).
Utilizing what they have learned, the duo combine to offer their strategies on building...
2022-05-2557 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 6, Episode 1) - Scott Morrison (Journalist) - 1972: The Series That Changed Hockey ForeverFifty years on, the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the then-Soviet Union remains the most famous international hockey series ever played.
In "1972: The Series That Changed Forever," Hockey Hall of Fame-honoured writer Scott Morrison draws a complete narrative of that classic confrontation a half-century ago.
What started out with good intentions between the sports’ reigning world power and a country that wanted to show that it was the best, when it chose to ice the best, became so much more in real time that September. The final result was as close as it gets, and for t...
2022-05-101h 10SportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 7) - Brian McFarlane (Hockey Hall of Fame - 1995) - A Helluva Life in HockeyBrian McFarlane has written so many books he has lost count, but never one about his life in hockey.
Approaching age 90, he finally decided it was time, at the behest of Michael Holmes, executive editor at ECW.
McFarlane is familiar to generations of fans from his three-decade tenure at Hockey Night in Canada as well as working in the U.S. with CBS and NBC.
His connection to the game is deep. As a standout NCAA player, he scored over 100 goals in his college career. An astute businessman, he brought the game to children...
2021-11-191h 11
AXSChat PodcastAXSChat Podcast with Gavin Neate Founder and CEO of NeatboxGavin Neate Founder and CEO of Neatbox18 years working directly with disabled people in the charity sector combined with his determination to address the challenges his clients were facing on a daily basis led Gavin start his own solution led company. His unique skills and passion for positive change make him a superb evangelist for equality, diversity and inclusion.Send a textSupport the showFollow axschat on social media.Bluesky:Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.com Debra https://bsky.app/profile/debraruh.bsky...
2021-10-1138 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 6) - Perdita Felicien (Canadian Olympian, World Champion Hurdler) - My Mother's Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and TriumphAn Olympic misstep might be how the public defines a career, but it hardly defines a high-performance athlete’s life.
When Perdita Felicien crashed into the first hurdle in the 100-metre final at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, all the reigning world champion from Canada could do was watch the race play out on a video screen high above the track.
Though her dreams were dashed, she would stand proud and tall again — it was in her DNA. In My Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and Triumph (Doubleday), Felicien fastidiously constructs a poignant narrat...
2021-03-2847 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 5) - Ryan Minkoff (83 LLC) - Thin IceHockey player’s are told to go to the net but Ryan Minkoff took his shot from the perimeter of the sport's universe.
Through his path in the game, readers gain an idea of how the sport operates on the far reaches of its icy landscape. Minkoff’s premise in Thin Ice (Lyons Press) is essentially that if you have some talent and take your approach seriously, you can make a go of it. Now a player agent working in Seattle, Minkoff did not allow himself to become discouraged by youth hockey politics while growing up in the...
2021-03-2749 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 4) - Eurico Rosa da Silva (Champion Jockey) - Riding for FreedomIn the sport of Kings, Eurico Rosa da Silva (Seven-Time Outstanding Jockey – The Jockey Club of Canada) reigned at Woodbine Racetrack, but for most of his life, he was living in a mental dungeon.
When writing his biography with Bruce McDougall, he held steadfast that this would not just be a book about his success as a jockey. The pages had to paint an unvarnished portrait of struggling with demons that tormented him in the form of gambling and sex addiction.
It had to examine how his roots in Brazil led him to where he is...
2021-03-1958 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 3) - Brantt Myhres - Pain Killer: A Memoir of Big League AddictionThe analytics wave had yet to sweep over the NHL when Brantt Myhres played in the league from 1994-2003. To be frank, goals, assists and plus/minus didn’t even matter that much in his role as enforcer. It was win lose or draw, no different from a heavyweight fighter.
So why do metrics apply to a man that last played a game almost 20 years ago? Because the numbers show his memoir is a top seller and for good reason.
In Pain Killer: A Memoir of Big League Addiction, Myhres shoots straight about trying to make...
2021-03-1752 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 2) - Rich Cohen - Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey ParentBreathe easy Canada. This isn’t the only country where parents have gone crazy over watching their kids play minor hockey.
Esteemed writer Rich Cohen (Contributing Editor - Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair), navigated the Connecticut interstate with his son Micah during the Ridgefield Bears 2018-19 AA Pee-Wee season and emerged on the other end with his latest book, Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent.
As the months pass and the season wears on, the immersion of mothers and fathers into the progress of their kids and outcomes of their games, builds.
They mi...
2021-03-161h 05SportsLitSportsLit (Season 5, Episode 1) - Spencer Haywood - The Spencer Haywood Rule: Battles, Basketball and the making of an American IconoclastThe reason that players like James Worthy and Michael Jordan were able to leave college “early” and enter the NBA draft or later, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James could do the same from highschool was because Spencer Haywood challenged the system and won.
50 years ago, the concept of “one-and-done” or “early entry” was born after a landmark Supreme Court ruling and the landscape of pro basketball seismically shifted.
Today, Haywood, an Olympic gold medallist (1968), NBA Champion (1980) Hall of Fame Inductee (2015) and former star power forward in the ABA and NBA still wants the league to put some resp...
2021-03-121h 07SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 14) - Ken Reid (Sportsnet) - One to Remember - Stories from 39 Members of the NHL's One Goal ClubIn hockey, either you are trying to keep the puck out, or put it in the net.
Whether you are Wayne Gretzky, who has scored an NHL record 894 times or a member of the NHL's one goal club, they all count the same.
Ken Reid (Sportsnet) tracked down 39 players who have lit the lamp just once, and in the process, turned footnotes into features, bringing to life the stories of men who have accomplished a feat that is the envy of anyone who has hit the ice with big league dreams.
2020-12-181h 01SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 13) - Paul Romanuk - Hockey Superstars 2020-2021Hockey fans in Canada know Paul Romanuk best from his broadcasting days at TSN and Hockey Night in Canada (Sportsnet), but for well over 30 years, he has also written Hockey Superstars, an annual release that showcases the NHL's best, to kids.
The 2020-21 edition was released on Oct. 6, and Romanuk joined us to discuss the challenges of producing the most recent installment during the pandemic, a TV/Radio career which has taken him to the top levels of sports media, and his new podcast The Walrus Was Paul.
2020-12-151h 16SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 12) - Serge Savard with Philippe Cantin - Forever CanadienSerge Savard grew up in rural Quebec following WWII in an era known as Le Grand Noirceur (The Great Darkness), but he didn't see it that way.
Confident and astute, Savard went from playing hockey on outdoor rinks reminiscent of illustrations in Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater, to starring for the Montreal Canadiens from 1966-67 - 80-81. Once he retired from the NHL, he returned to become their general manager. In total, he won the Stanley Cup 10 times.
All the while, he represented Canada internationally, developed his business acumen and fostered political relationships that have pr...
2020-12-021h 05SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 11) - Al Strachan - Hockey's Hot Stove - The Untold Stories of the Original InsidersWhen journalist Dave Shoalts joined us for Season 2, Episode 5 to discuss Hockey Fight in Canada, his book about the rights battle for Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC), he told us that his print stories about the storied program always moved the dial.
It's true, HNIC gets people talking...and writing.
Al Strachan had a long history with the show as a panelist on Satellite Hot Stove, the second intermission segment that was created by executive producer John Shannon in 1994 to showcase the insider knowledge of those dialed in around the NHL.
Along with...
2020-11-301h 12SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 10) - Rick Westhead (TSN) - Finding Murph - How Joe Murphy Went From Winning a Championship to Living Homeless in the BushJoe Murphy lives in the precarious crack that lies between an uplifting ending or a tragic conclusion.
Once upon a time he was the first NCAA player selected in the NHL Draft, a Stanley Cup winner and an eccentric teammate, but today he is homeless and in clear need of mental health care.
Could a vicious hit sustained in one of the 779 career games he played from 1986-2000 have significantly altered the path of his life to where it is today?
Journalist Rick Westhead (TSN) digs deep into the story of a gifted...
2020-11-261h 01SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 9) - Rick Vaive - Catch 22 - My Battles, in Hockey and LifeRon Hawkins sings of "a wounded soldier from the bad old days," in his song Peace and Quiet, which Tim Thompson wove together with archived footage to create his acclaimed ode to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
That lyric rings true when examining the tenure of former captain Rick Vaive.
A prolific scorer, he was named team captain at the age of 22 and netted three-consecutive 50-goal seasons while enduring a circus-like atmosphere and futility during the Harold Ballard era.
At his peak between 1980-87, he achieved great personal success on the ice, but it al...
2020-11-251h 06SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 8) - Angie Bullaro / Manon Rheaume - Breaking the IceManon Rheaume was always in a league of her own.
Mention her name to hockey fans and most will remember the media frenzy that accompanied her appearance in net with the Tampa Bay Lightning during NHL exhibition play in 1992.
While GM Phil Esposito got the attention he sought for his expansion team, Rheaume’s professionalism under the spotlight illuminated the way forward for women’s hockey.
Inspired to tell the story on film, actor/producer Angie Bullaro decided that a children’s book could also light a spark for future generations and so Breaking...
2020-11-1851 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 7) - Doug Smith (Toronto Star) - We The North - 25 Years of the Toronto RaptorsOn Nov. 3, 1995, the Toronto Raptors tipped off against the New Jersey Nets and changed the sports landscape of the city.
The Raptors are now a team to be reckoned with but it wasn’t long ago that people would have laughed at the notion they would ever win an NBA title, let alone by the time their 25th anniversary rolled around.
Why did they become champions? What were the turning points? How comedic, chaotic, tumultuous, and triumphant has the last quarter-century been?
Raptors beat writer Doug Smith (Toronto Star) has pretty much seen it...
2020-10-271h 14SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 6) - Willie O'Ree - Willie - The Game Changing Story of the NHL's First Black PlayerIf you are a hockey fan, you probably know the story of Willie O’Ree. In 1958, he became the first black player to skate in an NHL game when his Boston Bruins faced the Montreal Canadiens.
The feat wasn’t heralded at the time and Mr. O’Ree’s NHL career lasted just 45 games, though he would go on to play professional hockey until 1979. Following his retirement, he remained far from the public eye until 1996.
At that time the league was being run a new regime that was focused on expanding the game into new markets an...
2020-10-251h 09SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 5) - Brian Burke - Burke's Law - A Life in HockeyWhether it is an attention-grabbing quote, transaction or ruling, Brian Burke has always made a splash wherever he has worked, from the NHL head office, to running a marquee franchise.
He is well known for his tenure as the leagues’ disciplinarian and his time at the helm of the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2007. Since stepping away from management, he has become an analyst with Sportsnet.
In his newly released memoir written with Stephen Brunt, Burke sets the record straight on his v...
2020-10-141h 05SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 4) - Sami Jo Small - The Role I PlayedAs a child, Sami Jo Small had visions of summer Olympic glory, but those podium dreams would be realized through a winter sport.
When she began playing hockey as the only girl on a boys team in Winnipeg, there had yet to be an IIHF Women’s World Championship or competition at the winter games.
An excellent athlete, she landed a scholarship to Stanford University as a track and field competitor while moonlighting in net with the men's club team. A subpar meet led to a chance trip to Calgary, there, the national program happened to...
2020-09-291h 08SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 3) - Jeff Pearlman - Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers DynastyAs we entered a new millennium, the LA Lakers were in search of the sequel to Showtime. GM Jerry West was looking for answers after the curtain had dropped on Magic, Kareem and Worthy.
He found them in Shaq, a larger than life centre and a petulant, singularly focused, rising superstar named Kobe. In assembling this new era of dominance under head coach Phil Jackson, The Lake Show was flying high...but with a whole lot of drama unfolding behind the scenes.
Jeff Pearlman (current host of Two Writers Slinging Yang Podcast, former sr. writer at...
2020-09-161h 00SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 2) - Bryan Berard - My Life in Hockey and the Power of PerseveranceBefore Auston Matthews, there was another American star that wore No. 34 for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Twenty years ago, on March 11, 2000, his life changed forever and a promising career was compromised in an instant.
Bryan Berard was a dynamic defenseman, drafted first overall in 1995, he won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year after his first season. Just days after turning 23, and on the rise, an errant shot attempt permanently blinded him, but his story didn't end, or begin, with this horrific injury.
Along with Jim Lang, Berard released his memoir titled Relentless...
2020-03-111h 07SportsLitSportsLit (Season 4, Episode 1) - Roy MacGregor - The Ice Chips and the Stolen Cup (Volume 4)It’s a first! We cover a children’s book. Put your preconceptions aside, because although The Ice Chips series is aimed at kids, the historical and contemporary themes carry a weight that people from all ages and walks of life can appreciate.
So, who created this ongoing tale of a diverse time-traveling minor hockey team? Prolific Canadian journalist/author Roy MacGregor (O.C. - 2005, Hockey Hall of Fame - 2012) and his daughter Kerry.
With the fourth installment just released in February (The Ice Chips and the Stolen Cup), Roy spoke with us over the phone fro...
2020-03-0438 min
SportsLitSportsLit (Season 3, Episode 5) - Ken Reid (Sportsnet) - Eddie Shack, Hockey's Most Entertaining StoriesIt’s a hat-trick!
For the third time, Ken Reid (co-anchor - prime time weeknight edition of Sportsnet Central), joins SportsLit to discuss a new book.
So clear your audio tracks, it’s time to learn about Eddie “The Entertainer” Shack.
Hockey player. Outlier. Salesman.
Shack, now 82, is a living link to the Maple Leafs’ last Stanley Cup in 1967, one of four he won with Toronto in the 1960’s.
The illiterate son of Ukrainian Immigrants, he has always excelled by going with his gut and shooting from the hip.
Find out...
2019-12-1853 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 3, Episode 4) - Bernice Carnegie - A Fly in a Pail of Milk, The Herb Carnegie StoryThe NHL annually celebrates diversity with the campaign "Hockey is for Everyone", because at one time it wasn’t.
Before Willie O’Ree, there was Herb Carnegie.
The racial barrier that O’Ree was able to penetrate in 1958 when he became the first black player to play in the NHL, was the same one that kept Carnegie from ever reaching that goal.
Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1919, he was a dynamo on the ice, and an equally positive force off of it.
After retiring from an impressive semi-pro hockey career in the ea...
2019-10-091h 19SportsLitSportsLit (Season 3, Episode 3) - Sean Fitz-Gerald (The Athletic) - Before the Lights Go OutThe roots of this country and the game so many love are intertwined…but there is a problem, there has been for a long time.
Canadian hockey is approaching a state of crisis because of cost and exclusivity.
Reasons as to why this is the case have been thoroughly explored in a new book titled: Before the Lights Go Out: A Season Inside a Game Worth Saving (McClelland & Stewart), by journalist Sean Fitz-Gerald (The Athletic -Toronto).
Share in our conversation about how hockey has gone from Roch Carrier’s resonant snapshot of Canadiana that...
2019-09-3059 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 3, Episode 2)- Jerry Howarth - Hello Friends, Stories from My Life and Blue Jays BaseballTom Cheek and Jerry Howarth were like extended family for Toronto Blue Jays fans, all you have to do is mention their first names, and people in Canada know exactly who you are referring too.
From 1982-2004, the duo broadcasted the sights and sounds of Major League Baseball into cars, garages, workplaces and homes across the country via radio and later, the internet.
When a cancer diagnosis forced Cheek to vacate the booth permanently 15 years ago, Jerry Howarth continued to call games until a surprise retirement announcement in Feb. 2018.
Now he revisits his...
2019-04-0559 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 3, Episode 1) - Mark Hebscher - The Greatest Athlete You've Never Heard OfHis name is so obscure, it doesn’t even grace the title of a new book about him. Even if author Mark Hebscher included George Washington Orton in the title, would you know who he was?
Orton is Canada’s first ever Olympic medallist, reaching the podium with bronze in hurdles and then winning gold in steeplechase at the 1900 Summer Olympics held in Paris. For decades, what should have been a celebrated Canadian achievement, was essentially lost to history. Erroneously, his medals were credited to the U.S. as he was enrolled with the University of Pennsylvania and thu...
2019-03-211h 10SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 13) - Phil Lind (Rogers Comm.), Robert Brehl - Right Hand ManIn our final episode of season 2, Phil Lind (Vice-Chair, Rogers Communications Inc.) and author Robert (Bob) Brehl step into the arena to discuss Right Hand Man - How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada's Foremost Entrepreneur (Barlow Books).
What does this have to do with sports?
Well, quite a bit.
Lind was in lockstep with Rogers for the purchase of the Toronto Blue Jays 18 years ago, establishing Sportsnet in 1998 to rival TSN, as well as spearheading the Bills Toronto Series, which brought regular season NFL games to Toronto from 2008-2013.
2018-12-0546 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 12) - Glenn Stout (BASW) - The Pats, An Illustrated History of the New England PatriotsThink all we cover are books about hockey? Well, given this market, you wouldn't be entirely wrong.
With that in mind, it's a pleasure to announce that in our latest episode, Glenn Stout (Series Editor - Best American Sports Writing, author - Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year) joins us via phone to converse about his latest release - Pats: An Illustrated History of the New England Patriots (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Written with co-author Richard A. Johnson (Curator - The Sports Museum of New England), Pats is a...
2018-11-301h 15SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 11) - Damien Cox - The Last Good Year, Seven Games That Ended an EraThe 1992-93 Campbell Conference Final was riveting. 7 games in all, the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings had all the elements of high drama.
In his new book, The Last Good Year (Viking / Penguin Random House), veteran sportswriter Damien Cox (Toronto Star, Sportsnet) revisits the events that took place on and off the ice a quarter-century after he covered them as a beat writer.
Marty McSorley slugging it out with Wendel Clark.
Pat Burns’ hot pursuit toward Barry Melrose.
Don Cherry kissing Doug Gilmour on the cheek....
2018-11-211h 18SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 10) - Sean McIndoe (Down Goes Brown) - The Down Goes Brown History of the NHLDown Goes Brown injects a shot of humour directly into the NHL's funny bone.
Emerging from the blogosphere to the forefront of hockey coverage, Sean McIndoe (as he is also known) employs his perspective developed as an outsider to present a hilarious take on the often flawed history of the league in The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL (Penguin Random House Canada).
In 272 pages, McIndoe (The Athletic NHL) lays bare "the world’s most beautiful sport, the world’s most ridiculous league", from the impractical to preposterous, deconstructing myths and uncovering mind...
2018-11-181h 09SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 9) - - Dan Robson (The Athletic) - Bower, A Legendary LifeWhen you think of Johnny Bower, what comes to mind?
A loveable, charitable, kind man, who could be the archetype of the perfect grandfather?
Goaltender extraordinaire, playing at the highest level into middle age during the NHL's golden era?
All true, as is evident in best-selling author Dan Robson's new book about the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs netminder, but there is also more.
What was his original last name? Why did he change it? Where did he learn his patented poke-check?
Not every question has a direct answer, but...
2018-11-071h 06SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 8) - Jim Lang - Everyday Hockey Heroes, Inspiring Stories On and Off the IceAs hockey continues to evolve, so to do the people within the game, and those surrounding it.
Everyday Hockey Heroes: Inspiring Stories On and Off the Ice (Simon and Schuster) highlights individuals who have triumphed over adversity, overcome great odds and blazed new trails.
From household names like Wayne Simmonds (Philadelphia Flyers) and Andi Petrillo (TSN) to those who go about their lives far away from the spotlight, veteran broadcasters / writers Jim Lang (105.9 The Region, formerly Sportsnet) and Bob McKenzie (TSN) uncover uplifting stories from across Canada which are told in first person narrative.
2018-11-0147 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 7) - Joshua Kloke (The Athletic) - Come on You Reds, The Story of TFCCome On You Reds!
For fans of TFC, uttering those words must have rung hollow through much of the club's existence.
The organization appeared to be constantly resetting, apathy was setting in.
Where had the joy of being a shiny new franchise gone?
Eventually they did get it right and won the MLS Cup in 2017.
Joshua Kloke (The Athletic Toronto) chronicles their story from inception in 2005, through the worst years, to the title run, in his latest book: Come On You Reds - The Story of Toronto FC (Dundurn P...
2018-10-2558 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 6) - Ken Reid (Sportsnet) - Hockey Card Stories 2When Ken Reid (Sportsnet Central) is not busy doing TV, or raising his young family, he is collecting hockey cards and moreover, writing about them.
In 2014, he released Hockey Card Stories: True Tales from Your Favourite Players - which was a Canadian best seller, since then he has released two other books (One Night Only: Conversations with the NHL’s One-Game wonders & Dennis Maruk: The Unforgettable Story of Hockey’s Forgotten 60-Goal Man).
Now he is back with Hockey Card Stories 2, where he reveals more true tales from NHLers like Doug Gilmour, Guy Lafleur and “The Gr...
2018-10-0553 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 5) - David Shoalts (Globe & Mail) - Hockey Fight in CanadaSaturday night's all right for fighting, or perhaps - fighting for.
A new book written by David Shoalts (Globe and Mail) examines how Hockey Night in Canada, the crown jewel of Canadian sports broadcasting properties, changed hands from CBC to Rogers Communications in shocking fashion prior to the 2014-15 NHL season.
Shoalts joins Neil Acharya & Neate Sager to discuss Hockey Fight in Canada (Released Sept. 29), exploring the inner workings of the $5.2-billion deal that ended the 62-year reign of a CBC institution.
Don't know much about Keith Pelley, or John Collins? Why is...
2018-10-021h 08SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 4) - Rob Simpson - No Heavy Lifting, Globetrotting Adventures of a Sports Media GuyVariety is the spice of life, just ask Rob Simpson.
The current co-host of Stellick and Simmer (SiriusXM) is known primarily for his work covering the NHL (NHL Network, NBC, NESN), but he has chosen the scenic route along the way.
For his fourth book, Simmer compiles his unique adventures in broadcasting in No Heavy Lifting (ECW Press).
From covering the Detroit Pistons while still attending high school, being embroiled in a Hawaiian political scandal, to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with Zdeno Chara, Simmer pulls no punches while providing a humorous take on the va...
2018-05-091h 04SportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 3)- Daemon Fairless - Mad Blood Stirring, The Inner Lives of Violent MenFirst-time author Daemon Fairless explores and uncovers the propensity toward male violence in Mad Blood Stirring.
Utilizing his background in journalism (producer - CBC - As It Happens, Nature) and science (MSc - Neuroscience - Dalhousie University), Fairless writes compelling narrative non-fiction involving but not limited to: MMA fighters, TFC's Red Patch Boys, the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot and high school football.
Listen in as we discuss these elements, his findings, experience and much more on the latest episode of SportsLit.
I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire.
The d...
2018-04-1849 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 2) - Dan Robson (Sportsnet) - Killer, My Life in Hockey - Doug GilmourTeammates called him Killer.
Fans refer to him simply as Dougie.
Born in Kingston, Ontario, Doug Gilmour played twenty seasons in the NHL despite largely being written off early in his hockey career for being undersized.
Along the way the centreman won the Memorial Cup, Stanley Cup, Canada Cup gold, and was integral in resuscitating (even if temporarily) the fledging Toronto Maple Leafs. Retiring in 2003, he had recorded 450 goals, 964 assists in 1474 games which led to his induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame (Class of 2011).
He was truly a complete player a...
2018-01-2442 minSportsLitSportsLit (Season 2, Episode 1) - Karl Subban - How We Did It, with Scott Colby (Toronto Star)Karl Subban has an impressive resume.
Educator. Motivator. Famous hockey dad and now, author.
He joins us for our first episode of 2018 to discuss his debut book, How We Did It - The Subban Plan for Success in Hockey, School and Life, written with journalist Scott Colby (Toronto Star).
While most know him as the father of NHL superstar P.K. Subban (Nashville Predators) as well as Malcolm (Vegas Golden Knights) and Jordan (LA Kings). His new book, like the man, is multi-faceted, going well beyond the rink.
From exploring the f...
2018-01-081h 09SportsLitSportsLit (Episode No. 3) - - Stacey May Fowles - Best Canadian Sports Writing with Pasha MallaA Filipino basketball league in the Yukon, street racers dodging the law around Toronto's suburbs and a first-hand account of the Bassmaster Classic fishing challenge are just a few of the unique stories curated by Stacey May Fowles and Pasha Malla in the Best Canadian Sports Writing anthology.
Released this fall, the compilation highlights narrative non-fiction. It takes the reader far beyond the 24-hour news cycle by showcasing authors and topics rarely featured in the mainstream sports conversation.
Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice, joins fellow journalists Neil Acharya and Neate Sager to discuss the p...
2017-12-211h 02SportsLitSportsLit (Episode No. 2) - Greg Oliver (Slam! Wrestling) - Gratooney The Looney - Gilles GrattonHow many NHL goalies claim to have had out of body experiences?, traveled to India to study meditation....and partied like a rock star? We know of one, his name is Gilles Gratton, otherwise known as Gratoony The Loony. Join journalists Neil Acharya & Neate Sager as they discuss his "wild and unpredictable life" with author Greg Oliver (Slam Wrestling).
2017-11-161h 02
SportsLitSportsLit (Episode No.1) - Ken Reid (Sportsnet) - Dennis MarukJoin journalists Neil Acharya and Neate Sager in conversation with broadcaster/author Ken Reid (Host / Sportsnet Central) about his third book, titled: Dennis Maruk: The Unforgettable Story of Hockey's Forgotten 60-goal Man.
2017-10-261h 11