Changing On The Fly Changing On The Fly

The hockey world, especially at the NHL level, has been extremely quiet on racial justice issues for too many years - until now. The Black-led uprising for Black Lives Matter following the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 finally prompted an outpouring of statements from the NHL and several high profile players. We have never seen anything like this in professional hockey before.

To help us make sense of the moment, we hear from two of the finest journalists reporting on sports and social movements. First, we caught up with Hemal Jhaveri, a columnist for USA Today's For The Win, and a frequent commentator on race issues in hockey. Then we hear from Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation magazine and host of the Edge of Sports podcast.

We asked both our guests what hockey players and the NHL have gotten right, what they haven't gotten wrong, and why we're seeing this unprecedented support for #BlackLivesMatter in hockey now.

Happy new year! This is our first episode of 2020, and it's nice to have you with us for a new decade of hockey and resistance :)

Our esteemed guest on the show today is Matt Hern. Matt lives in Vancouver, where he’s an activist, scholar, and writer. While he writes on a variety of fascinating topics ranging from free schools to global warming to parenting, he’s one of the most exciting and engaged radical sports philosophers that I know.

Matt put out a book back in 2013 called “One Game at a Time: Why Sports Matter” that I would highly recommend to everyone who loves this podcast.

In this interview, we talk about masculinities, risk, and the beautiful creativity of hockey. Enjoy!

**If you like this podcast, then support us!

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We are at a watershed moment in hockey history right now. Many of us know that hockey has had a racism problem for a long time, but now the conversations are coming to the surface in ways that they never have before.

And Courtney Szto is one of the most important people driving those conversations. She's our guest on this episode of Changing on the Fly, and we got to talk about everything from Hockey Night in Punjabi to the changing face of hockey today.

Follow Courtney Szto on Twitter

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It's official. Don Cherry, the long time host of Hockey Night in Canada, has been fired. FINALLY. It comes after his most recent racist tirade (far from his first) on live TV against immigrants in Canada.

We break down Don Cherry and his penchant for biggotry with Kristi Allain. Kristi teaches in the department of sociology at St-Thomas University in Fredericton, NB, and has penned several articles and studies on Cherry's hate-spewing rhetoric. Find her on Twitter @Kristi_Allain.

Plus we hear some of the words of sports commentator Shireen Ahmed via a beautiful piece she wrote for the Globe and Mail.

If you like this podcast, then support us! www.patreon.com/changingonthefly

Music on this podcast by Steam, Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest, and Propagandhi. Our theme music is by Tshizimba.

Wilton Littlechild is a Cree chief from Maskwacis, Alberta. He is a lawyer, a former hockey player, a residential school survivor, and more recently he was one of the commissioners of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

He joins us as a special guest on this episode of Changing On The Fly to talk about his own life story, how we can use hockey to promote nation to nation dialogue and understanding, and how we can move towards decolonizing sport, particularly through the Calls to Action of the commission.

Later in the show, we also break down the St-Louis Blues' pitiful visit to the White House, and how hockey players are allowing themselves to be foolish pawns in Trump's desperate efforts to normalize his presidency.

** Like this podcast? Then support us!

https://www.patreon.com/changingonthefly

Music on this episode by: A Tribe Called Red, The Tragically Hip, KRS-One, The Sugarman 3 & Talib Kweli. Our theme music is by the one and only Tshizimba.

Welcome back to Season 2 of Changing on the Fly! Our guest on this episode is Erica Ayala. Erica is an NWHL analyst, broadcaster, and an expert on women’s hockey. We talk here about the women’s hockey strike in Sweden, the Dream Gap tour in women’s hockey in North America, and so much more.

Follow Erica on Twitter @elindsay08

If you like this podcast, then support us! www.patreon.com/changingonthefly



Read Hemal Jhaveri's article about Auston Matthews here.