Death of a Sports Star

4.1 (21)
SPORTS
DAILY SERIES

CROWD STORIES

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These are the unforgettable, tragic stories of superstars we loved and lost - told as you’ve never heard them before. Death of a Sports Star is a Crowd Network original, presented by Elroy "Spoonface" Powell, Emma Clarke and Tom Price.

EPISODE 1

Kobe Bryant

Where were you, when you heard? In the opening episode of the series, we tell the story of the final act of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant – how it unfolded, what it meant, how we all felt about it. It’s Kobe, but as you’ve never heard him before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

34 min
EPISODE 2

Justin Fashanu

WARNING: this episode includes reference to suicide. The first million-pound black footballer, a pioneer, an unstoppable goalscorer. But Justin Fashanu was more than that too: an adopted kid, a gay man in straight world, a lost soul looking for answers. It’s a story that touches you, troubles you. Did it have to end this way? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

35 min
EPISODE 3

Payne Stewart

When you saw it, you couldn’t forget: a jet plane, flying by itself through an empty sky, a sporting superstar on board and no way of reaching him. This is the story of Payne Stewart, a golfer who was brash and brilliant and different and shook up his sport and the world around it: how he lived, and how he died. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 min
EPISODE 4

Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani was a bike rider who seemed to have reached the summit of his sport. Fans loved his panache, his style, his vulnerability. But with Pantani it was always about the descent rather than the climb - and he would fall further than anyone dared fear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

38 min
EPISODE 5

Flo-Jo

She was the skinny kid from the poor part of LA who grew up to be the fastest woman in history, smashing world records with a look and style that made her unforgettable. But there were many who struggled to believe in her remarkable transformation - and more than two decades after her shock death, the unsettling questions and mysteries around Flo-Jo refuse to disappear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

33 min
EPISODE 6

Phillip Hughes

He was the smiley, lovable kid from the country whose cricketing talents took him all the way into the Australia team. But a tragic sporting accident on a seemingly ordinary day meant he would never fulfil that rich potential - and left a sport-obsessed nation devastated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

33 min
EPISODE 7

Sonny Liston

In the whole history of boxing, there cannot be a story murkier than Sonny Liston’s. And there’s no sport murkier than boxing. Even when Sonny was heavyweight champion of the world – one of the most famous men on the planet – the public didn’t really know him. He was unloved and unwanted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

33 min
EPISODE 8

Jonah Lomu

There’s never been a player like Jonah Lomu - what he could do, the impact he had on the world. What few realised is what he’d come through to get there - and what he was going through even as he appeared to be unstoppable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 min

See All Season 1 (24)

TRAILER

Trailer: Death of a Sports Star

These are the unforgettable, tragic stories of superstars we loved and lost - told as you’ve never heard them before. Expect a new episode every Monday. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

08/18/2020

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4 min

The Secret History of Flight 149 Imagine boarding a flight thinking you’re heading on holiday, but instead you get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in August 1990 this is what happened to the passengers and crew of BA Flight 149. What followed has been dubbed the most shocking government cover-up of the last thirty years. Journalist Stephen Davis has been reporting on this extraordinary story for the past three decades. In this series you’ll hear directly from the hostages - the people used as human shields by the Iraqi regime, with horrific and traumatic consequences. But why was the plane allowed to land at all, putting so many lives at risk? Why have secrets and lies persisted for so many years? Join Stephen in his search to uncover the truth behind The Secret History of Flight 149. Presenter: Stephen Davis Producer: Samantha Psyk Mixing and sound design: Rory Auskerry

4.7 (100)

TRUE CRIME
This brand new pop culture history podcast is nothing like anything you've heard before, and it's everything you need to understand the modern world. Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce, an American pop culture buff and a British music lover, have taken the smash-hit song by Billy Joel and turned it into a podcast. Billy lists 120 people, places, and things in 'We Didn't Start The Fire', and Katie and Tom will do an episode on every single one to create the most fascinating, random and original history of the post-war world. Over the next two and a half years, we're going to learn about politics, rock 'n' roll, sport, space, television, the Cold War, guided along the way by historians, eyewitnesses, and mega-fans. Billy started it. We're going to finish it. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @spreadthatfire, email us at fire@crowdnetwork.co.uk, and go to spreadthatfire.com to buy merch.

3.8 (112)

HISTORY
KC is the American Vigilante - A hugely complex, intelligent, contradictory man who could save your life but end it too. Who leads a group of violent men standing on the blurred line between right and wrong, between revenge and redemption. A man you want on your side when it all falls apart. American Vigilante is true crime, but so much more. It’s saving abducted children, it’s stepping beyond the law. It’s rescue missions, assassination attempts and last-gasp protection. It’s all the stuff you hope never comes to you, until it does. Former BBC Journalist Sam Walker presents this Crowd Network original. She’s been speaking to KC for months and has recorded everything he’s told her. You’ll need to listen to make your own mind up, but you might never be the same again. It’s shocking, inspiring, frightening and thought-provoking. It’ll change how you see the world, and it might change how you move within it. Everyone thinks they’re safe, until they aren’t. Everyone thinks they know how they’ll react, until the darkness comes.

4.4 (477)

TRUE CRIME
From Kurt Cobain to Whitney Houston, Michael Hutchence and Amy Winehouse, these are their stories - powerful, poignant and raw. This series will change how you feel about them.

4.7 (75)

MUSIC HISTORY
The shocking, riveting inside story of one of the biggest cover-ups in US military history. You thought you knew about the Iraq War? Everything you knew is about to change. Forever. Written and narrated by filmmaker Michael Epstein, Murder in House Two is about what really happened in the Haditha Massacre of November 2005, when 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians – including women and young children – were shot multiple times by a group of US Marines. But it’s about much more, too: about one man’s fight for justice, about how the US government tried to prevent the truth ever getting out, about paranoia and persistence and an unshakeable belief in what is wrong and what is right.

4.8 (527)

TRUE CRIME
Is the post-Cold War era over? In this brave new world, nothing is too small, or big, to be digitalised…including acts of war. Russian ransomware attacks almost doubled last year. At this very moment, cybercriminals are crippling schools, supermarkets, dentists, kindergartens, hospitals, oil pipelines - all in the name of money. Katie Puckrik wants to know who, and why. You can listen to the previous series of dot com on this same feed. Series 1 unveils the hidden army of volunteers behind the world's biggest encyclopaedia; and series 2 explores the heat behind the headlines of the US's 5th biggest social media website, Reddit. Dot com is presented by Katie Puckrik, written and produced by Anna Staufenberg, and edited by Crawford Blair.

4.8 (9)

TECHNOLOGY
Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) stars in a dark, near-future science fiction fairytale about a robot who can feel, and the world that attempts to control her. When a robot called Eliza falls in love with Him (Arthur Darvill, Doctor Who), they work together to make her fully sentient. But consciousness doesn’t come without consequences. As Eliza gets caught in a web of both loving and abusive relationships, she has to fight to survive. #OneVoiceRaisesAnother Eliza is a Crowd Network original made in partnership with The Pankhurst Trust / Manchester Women’s Aid. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, help is available now. You can call the 24/7 national helpline on 0808 2000 247 and get free confidential advice at https://www.womensaid.org.uk If you want early episodes and behind the scenes content, subscribe now to the Crowd Stories channel. Full transcripts of all episodes are available on the Crowd website.

4.7 (62)

DRAMA
From Heath Ledger to Marilyn Monroe, Chadwick Boseman to James Dean, these are the stories of the stars who will never fade – adored, unforgettable, unique. The inside tales, the scandals, the truth about who they really were.

4.6 (27)

TV & FILM

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Elroy Powell

Host

4.1

out of 5

21 Ratings

Interesting stories sensitively told

02/15/2021

bam526

This and Death of a Rockstar are my new favorite podcasts
Entertaining and interesting

04/27/2022

KK rocks so so so so MUCH

Well researched and interesting even when you don’t know the subject that well
Really loved it until they couldn’t even say Kobe’s name right.

03/25/2022

Krysia24

Stop saying Kolby. You portray Kobe was guilty of a case that went all the way to criminal trial and he was exonerated as but never clarify? 20 years before his death too? Just say his name right and they e on his get you 4 stars. You say it right 1/4 of the time so it’s just purposeful at a point.
Great podcast

02/15/2021

Mrs See

I gain a lot from Death of a Sports Star snd Death of a Rockstar. The narrator is very good.
Interesting

12/27/2020

Cb booradley

Interesting short stories about people I was largely unfamiliar with.
⚽️British Sport Tragedies🏏

01/30/2021

Ponterbee's2ndPhone

Very fun to listen to, but at times unsettling, podcast about sport superstars (or those on their way) that you’ve probably never heard of - for the most part. But that actually makes this even MORE listenable to me - because it’s the stories about these immensely gifted young gods that kept me hypnotized, not the marketing of personalities. Just remember: FOOTBALL (or “Footie”) is SOCCER everywhere else in the world -
Expected better

09/17/2020

jgould38

Just someone’s opinions on what they thought other people were thinking