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Sports & Recreation

The Long Game: Sports Stories of Courage and Conviction

Foreign Policy and Doha Debates

On The Long Game, we highlight stories of courage and conviction on and off the field. From athletes who are breaking barriers for women and girls to a Syrian refugee swimmer who overcame th...

Episodes

20 of 24 episodes

Boxing Provides a Path out of Poverty for Girls in Pakistan

Aliya Soomro was not yet ten years old when she heard that a boxing coach near her home was training young girls. Aliya lives in Lyari, a de...

23:04Dec 15, 2022

Football Opens Path to Reconciliation

Eric Murangwa Eugene was a 19-year-old goalkeeper for Rwanda’s most beloved football team when the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis...

33:38Dec 8, 2022

TIBU Africa Changes Lives Through Sports

Earlier this year, Ibtihaj Muhammad traveled to Morocco to meet with 18 young sports entrepreneurs living and working in North Africa. The p...

25:06Dec 1, 2022

Athletes Join the Fight for Women's Rights in Iran

At first glance, the protests in Iran might not seem like a sports story. But in the lead up to the Qatar World Cup, there were calls to bar...

32:28Nov 24, 2022

Biking Through the Pain of War

In 2015, Rebecca Rusch and Huyen Nguyen set out to bike 1,200 miles of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as strangers from once-opposing countries. They...

29:38Nov 17, 2022

A Soccer Star Gives Back to Sierra Leone

When Michael Lahoud was 6 years old, he fled civil war in Sierra Leone and came to the United States. He felt scared and alone. But with hel...

38:48Nov 10, 2022

Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries and the Fight Against Abusive Coaching

Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries won her third gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. But, for the first time, instead of singing along to “O C...

32:53Nov 3, 2022

Lina Khalifeh: SheFighter

When Lina Khalifeh was young, all she wanted to do was play football with the boys in her neighborhood in Jordan. But the boys bullied her,...

35:08Oct 27, 2022

Using Football to Spread the Word About the Plight of the Rohingya

Robi Alam is a Rohingya refugee. His family fled violence and persecution in Myanmar. A decade later, Robi was born in a refugee camp in Ban...

29:14Oct 20, 2022

Nneka Ogwumike on Brittney Griner and the Politics of Pay Inequity

On today’s show, host Ibtihaj Muhammad interviews Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, abou...

29:09Oct 13, 2022

Trailer Season 2

On The Long Game, we highlight stories of courage and conviction on and off the field. From Rohingya refugees who play soccer to share their...

2:48Oct 6, 2022

How a Former NFL Player Tackles Environmental Racism…With Help from a Cartoon

It’s no coincidence that factories and toxic waste facilities have been built near poor communities and communities of color. It’s part of t...

32:17Feb 8, 2022

Why Intersex Athlete Annet Negesa is Telling Her Story

In 2012, Annet Negesa qualified to represent Uganda in the 800-meter run at the London Olympics. But just weeks before the Games, she got a...

29:16Feb 1, 2022

How A Chilean Women’s Soccer Player Scored For Gender Equality

For as long as she can remember, Iona Rothfeld has loved playing soccer. But in Chile, soccer is considered a “boys” sport. When she was 13...

32:37Jan 25, 2022

A Syrian Paralympian Who Competes For All Refugees

Ibrahim Al Hussein grew up watching the Olympics on TV. He was a swimmer. And he dreamed of someday being one of the athletes up on the podi...

25:48Jan 18, 2022

How Mohamed Salah changed attitudes. Other athletes can too.

Mohamed Salah is one of the best forwards in the English Premier League. He is a Muslim, playing in a league that has a reputation for racis...

22:27Jan 11, 2022

The Unstoppable Spirit of Paralympian Scout Bassett

When it comes to dealing with adversity, Scout Bassett has had more than her fair share. Born in Nanjing, China, she was abandoned after los...

32:50Jan 4, 2022

From a War Zone to the FIFA Boardroom, a Female Footballer Finds Her Way

Honey Thaljieh grew up in a war zone. One day, on the streets of Bethlehem, she passed by a group of boys playing football. By chance, they...

26:45Dec 21, 2021

How South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup Win is Still Felt Today

The 1995 Rugby World Cup marked the end of apartheid and South Africa’s return to the international sports stage. The home team -- the Sprin...

35:12Dec 14, 2021

I Never Felt More Like Myself: A Professional Basketball Player’s Hijab Journey

Whenever an athlete steps onto a field, court, or fencing strip, they bring with them all that they are: their background, their lived exper...

27:59Dec 7, 2021