Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
Kevin Fishbain, senior writer at The Athletic, interviews sports media personalities about their origin stories. Each week, reporters, columnists, play-by-play announcers, sports radio hosts, television anchors, producers and more will tell Kevin about their first jobs in the industry, and how they broke in.
Episodes
39 episodes
Michael Silver, senior NFL writer at The Athletic
In episode 38, Kevin chats with Michael Silver, senior NFL writer at The Athletic. Silver has been covering the league since he was on the 49ers' beat in the early 90's. He wrote more than 70 cover stories for Sports Illustrated and also worked...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 38
•
1:06:10
Sheil Kapadia, podcast host at The Ringer
In episode 37, Kevin chats with Sheil Kapadia, podcast host at The Ringer. Kapadia hosts the Philly Special podcast and The Ringer NFL Show. Prior to his time at The Ringer, Kapadia covered the Philadelphia Eagles at The Athletic. He also was E...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 37
•
32:19
Stacey Dales, NFL Network senior national reporter
In episode 36, Kevin chats with Stacey Dales, senior national reporter for NFL Network. Dales has been with NFL Network since 2009, and prior to that, she was an analyst and reporter for ESPN and ABC. She also was an NCAA women's basketball ana...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 36
•
42:29
Jake Zivin, lead play-by-play for MLS on Apple TV
In episode 35, Kevin chats with Jake Zivin, the play-by-play broadcaster for Apple TV's coverage of the MLS. Saturday afternoon, Zivin will be on the call for the MLS Cup on Apple TV alongside Taylor Twellman. How Zivin got to that seat began a...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 35
•
47:18
Kevin Clark, host of "This is Football" from ESPN and Omaha Productions
In episode 34, Kevin chats with Kevin Clark, host of "This is Football" from ESPN and Omaha Productions, and former NFL writer at The Ringer and the Wall Street Journal. The first "Kevin" to appear as a guest, Clark recalls the first podcast he...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 34
•
51:27
Mark Lazerus, senior NHL writer at The Athletic
In episode 33, Kevin chats with Mark Lazerus, senior NHL writer at The Athletic and Chicago Blackhawks beat writer. "Laz," who's in his 14th season covering the Blackhawks, has been named one of the top three columnists in the country twice in ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 33
•
37:53
Judy Battista, NFL Network senior national columnist
In episode 32, Kevin chats with Judy Battista, NFL Network senior national columnist. Battista is on "The Insiders" on NFL Network Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 p.m. ET. She's been writing for NFL.com and discussing the league on NFL Netwo...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 32
•
36:05
Sarah Kustok, NBA analyst
In episode 31, Kevin chats with Sarah Kustok, Brooklyn Nets analyst on the YES Network. A two-time winner of the New York Emmy Award, Kustok was the first-ever solo female analyst for an NBA team. She also does NFL sidelines on Fox and is part ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 31
•
42:40
Marcus Thompson II, senior columnist at The Athletic
In episode 30, Kevin chats with Marcus Thompson, senior columnist at The Athletic in the Bay Area. Thompson is the author of "Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry" and was a 2025 nominee for the Dan Jenkins Medal in Excellence in Sportswr...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 30
•
44:27
Ken Rosenthal, senior MLB writer at The Athletic and Fox Sports broadcaster
In episode 29, Kevin chats with Ken Rosenthal, senior baseball writer at The Athletic and Emmy-winning broadcaster for Fox Sports’ MLB coverage, including this week’s World Series. Rosenthal has been one of the most prominent news breakers in t...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 29
•
30:30
Jeff Pearlman, New York Times best-selling author
In episode 28, Kevin chats with Jeff Pearlman, New York Times best-selling author of 11 books. His latest book, "Only God can Judge Me: The many lives of Tupac Shakur,” comes out Oct. 21. He has written biographies of Brett Favre, Walter Payton...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 28
•
41:53
Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports college football writer
In episode 27, Kevin chats with Tom Fornelli, college football writer for CBS Sports and co-host of the Cover 3 podcast. Fornelli has been at CBS for 15 years, and he is a fixture in their college football coverage. How did he get to CBS? It wa...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 27
•
42:47
Mina Kimes, ESPN NFL analyst
In episode 26, Kevin chats with Mina Kimes, NFL analyst at ESPN and host of "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny." Kimes can be seen on NFL Live and a variety of ESPN shows offering her NFL expertise, but her start in journalism was in the busi...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 26
•
31:46
Ian Rapoport, NFL Network senior insider
In episode 25, Kevin chats with Ian Rapoport, senior insider at NFL Network, where he has become one of the most prominent newsbreakers in the sport. Rapoport began covering the NFL when he was on the Patriots beat with the Boston Herald in 200...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 25
•
41:12
Dianna Russini, senior NFL insider at The Athletic
In episode 24, Kevin chats with Dianna Russini, The Athletic's senior NFL insider and host of "Scoop City." Prior to joining The Athletic, Russini spent eight years at ESPN. An accomplished prep athlete, Russini's story begins there, and how sh...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 24
•
39:38
Joe Buck, MNF play-by-play announcer
In episode 23, Kevin sets the stage for the first "Monday Night Football" game of the season between the Bears and Vikings with Joe Buck, the voice of MNF on ESPN and ABC. Buck has been calling NFL games since 1994. He was in the St. Louis Card...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 23
•
37:19
Mike Tirico, host and play-by-play, NBC Sports
In episode 22, Kevin kicks off the NFL season with the voice of Sunday Night Football, Mike Tirico, who will call Cowboys-Eagles on Thursday night to begin the season, and then Ravens-Bills on Sunday night. With the NBA returning to NBC, Tirico...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 22
•
30:02
Bruce Feldman, national college football insider for The Athletic and sideline reporter for Fox
In episode 21, Kevin chats with Bruce Feldman, national college football insider for The Athletic. In addition to his written work at The Athletic, Feldman co-hosts the podcast "The Audible" and is a sideline reporter for Fox's college football...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 21
•
50:26
Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns, Bears reporters and podcast hosts at CHGO
In episode 20, Kevin chats with Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns, hosts of the aptly-named "Hoge and Jahns" podcast about the Chicago Bears. They've covered the Bears alongside Kevin for over a decade. It's a special triple-origin-story episode, as Hog...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 20
•
1:02:32
Bryan Curtis, editor-at-large at the Ringer, co-host of The Press Box
In episode 19, Kevin chats with Bryan Curtis, an editor-at-large at The Ringer and co-host of the media podcast, "The Press Box," one of the podcasts that helped inspire this one. Curtis got his start as an intern at the New Republic before hea...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 19
•
41:19
Jori Epstein, Yahoo senior NFL reporter
In episode 18, Kevin chats with Jori Epstein, who has covered the NFL at Yahoo since 2022. Prior to that, she worked for USA Today with a focus on the Dallas Cowboys. She won the Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award in 2022 as voted on by the ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 18
•
40:52
Adam Rittenberg, ESPN senior college football writer
In episode 17, Kevin chats with Adam Rittenberg, who has covered college football at ESPN full-time since 2008, but has been affiliated with ESPN dot com dating back to an internship in 2001. Rittenberg's journalism career even dates back to hi...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 17
•
37:31
Jimmy Traina, Sports Illustrated writer and host of “SI Media” podcast
In episode 16, Kevin chats with Jimmy Traina, a longtime writer at Sports Illustrated and host of “SI Media with Jimmy Traina.” Traina’s podcast helped inspire the one you’re listening to now, as he has interviewed some of the biggest names in ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 16
•
38:41
Michele Steele, ESPN National Reporter
In episode 15, Kevin chats with Michele Steele, who does it all for ESPN, from reporting at big events to being in-studio at ESPN anchoring SportsCenter. The path to what has been a decade and a half at ESPN began as a business reporter. Steele...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 15
•
48:31
Tyler Kepner, senior MLB writer at The Athletic
In episode 14, Kevin chats with Tyler Kepner, who has covered Major League Baseball for more than 30 years, dating back to when he made a baseball magazine out of his house as a high schooler. Kepner, who has authored "K: A History of Baseball ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 14
•
43:33