On what it's like to have your life story inspire a hit TV show. On how one sheds his reputation as (solely) an athlete. On the highs and lows of Hollywood. On whether it's all worth it.
On her memories of being a young girl in a concentration camp; on how to put those memories into a book; on the pain of writing on trauma; on becoming an 85-year-old TikTok phenom.
On how every cliche about aging is painfully true; on the brilliance of David Stern and the joy of the 1984 men's U.S. Olympic basketball trials; on the bliss of book PR
On the step-by-step process of writing her new single, "For The Record." On what it means to make it in country music in 2025. On the impact of Eminem on her writing process. On writing for the Walmart shopper.
On the glory days of hip-hop media—and the decline. On what drew a young Rob to the genre. On writing about music when the creators aren't so happy. On the brutally honest CD review. On Tupac.
On the keys to capturing your own life via memoir. On why this multi-city book tour will likely be her last. On how it feels to have a book become a major motion picture. On turning 70 as a scribe.
On the terrifying AI path humanity has opted to stroll. On creating characters and giving them depth and voice. On how one comes up with an ending to a novel. On a career covering musical artists.
On why he thrashed me on TikTok for months and months. On the highs and lows of athlete representation. On why certain baseball execs make him sick. On the joys and pains of social media.
On voicing "Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur." On the changing nature of audio book recordings. On transition from acting to news television.
On the changing landscape of basketball media. On what life was like covering Kobe Bryant. On the highs and higher highs of USA Today. On whether there's a future for this industry.
On how the decline of media has impacted political messaging and general news. On whether people should still have faith in America. On Speaker Mike Johnson and his steady diet of bullshit.
On the wild, wacky, weird joy of working with the 1984 Padres. On how he was plucked to help write Tony Gwynn's autobiography. On the highs and lows of life in baseball.
On the highs and lows of watching boxers live and die in the ring. On lessons learned from television. On the craziest boxer he's covered. On the old USFL.
On how she managed to track down Brenda's baby—and Brenda. On whether Ancestry is reliable. On how technology impacts family digging.
On why a sports writer would think himself worthy of chronicling Tupac Shakur. On the highs and lows and hardships of book reporting. On Tupac's amazing journey.
On whether the publication payoff is worth the grind of book reporting. On Warren Moon and Tom Brady and the dudes who throw balls very far. On deciding which superstars to cover.
On what it was like to cover the Bronx Zoo Yankees of the 1970s. On Reggie and Billy and George. On what he learned from the legends of the business. On why baseball stopped being so fun.
On the pleasure/pain of the bookstore event. On why baseball seems so dull and listless; on meeting with the greats of the game; on living in book hell.
On making the jump from Yahoo to ESPN after decades in one spot. On surviving as a top-shelf sports journalist in a hellish age. On the highs and lows and lows and highs of the gig. On early pizza-making days.
On the similarities and differences between covering women's basketball and football at a major university. On life with Dawn Staley, and whether she would make a good NBA coach. On coming up in the modern era of adjusted journalistic dreams.
Fred Kass
always entertaining and informative