More than 8000 sports are enjoyed by players and fans around the world. Every one of them has stories worth hearing, but just a tiny handful get the coverage they deserve!
Every episode we’ll be joined by an expert guest to introduce you to the rules, jargon, and big talking points - everything you need to know to tell a friend all about your new favourite sport.
Welcome to Left Field
First time listening to Left Field? Start here for your introduction to Season One!
On this debut season, we cover Hurling, Climbing, Ultimate Frisbee, BMX and Roller Derby. Join us for a quick chat with our co-hosts to walk you through what you can expect from an episode of Left Field, plus some of our highlights of our first five episodes. Then, jump into which ever sport takes your fancy.
2 Dec 2025
Hurling
Mythical dogs, local rivalries, our most fun scoring system yet and a sport expanding its reach from homeland Ireland to countries across the world. There's a lot to get into - Hurling is our sport for this episode.
2 Dec 2025
Climbing
A bit of everything in this episode - climbing out in nature with your friends, Free Climbing, Olympic Climbing, all the many varieties of competition and sport climbing. If you like the idea of scaling things, getting out in nature or finding out about something completely new, this is for you.
We're thrilled to be joined by a huge climbing expert Andrew Bisharat: climber, writer, publisher of Evening Sends and the co-host of The RunOut podcast (https://runoutpodcast.com/). Thanks to Andrew for his time, you can find all of his work online here: https://eveningsends.com/author/andrewbisharat/
2 Dec 2025
BMX
From DIY roots as a sport "created by kids, for kids” to the Olympic podium, our expert guests Dave Camilleri and Liam Healy take Glenn into all things BMX.
Dave's research: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/27538702251378553
Liam's research: https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3537797.3537814
2 Dec 2025
Ultimate Frisbee
Glenn is diving into the world of Ultimate Frisbee with the help of co-host Ellen and expert guest Janeanne Levenstein, PhD Candidate in American Studies at the University of Iowa and a highly experienced Ultimate Frisbee player.
So, is there more to this than tossing a frisbee around in the park? Let's find out...
2 Dec 2025
Roller Derby
A real treat this episode as the Left Field crew dive into Roller Derby, a sport none of our hosts know the first thing about. Fortunately, we're delighted to be joined by someone who does - Claire Peters, a member of the Old Capital City Roller Derby team.
Looking for something fun, community-driven and a *little* chaotic? This could be the sport for you. And as Claire tells us, you might even pick up a new nickname along the way...
Read "The Long and Surprising History of Roller Derby" by Jennifer Harlan in The New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/sports/roller-derby-history-photos.html
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