i know a lot of us missed sports for a while when they were shut down in 2022. it wasn t the same watching the nba finals with those fans on the zoom screens there in the bubble at the time. how important is having sports leagues back in our lives for our mental well-being and being able to participate. i know you watch the games are the vip box when you go to the stadiums, so you are not among the crowds but what is it like to be up there in the rarified a? i watched the last national s game from the bleachers. i can t overstate the degree to which sports are a huge thing for our society in terms of people s mental happiness. i mean, you know, if we are not obsessed with a sports team, or a program or something, but in particular sports, they bring people together. in addition it gives them something to root for, something
joining me now is my panel, including comedian judy gold the author of yes i can say that and a sports and culture writer for the athletic and the author of loving sports when they don t love you. great to have you all with us. judy i think the title of your podcast is very apartment for this situation i am in. kill me now. having to read that amazing introduction we just did there to kick off the holiday season. jonathan, i ll begin with you the version of the build back better plan that makes it out of the senate is likely to end up looking a lot different than the one that went in. we know that for a fact. what changes do we expect to see when it comes up in these negotiations? let me say i am impressed with your versatility and the democrats can certainly use this as they try to get this done not
to be hopeful about, unless you are rooting for the lion who is are winless so far in the nfl season. you have got something to root for. and even detroit gets the number one draft pick next year. it is a big deal. it is hard to overstate the difference between having empty reins and seeing fans in those arenas. last year so many of the sports didn t have fans. this year i know baseball protocols at the beginning of the year they had like 5,000 people in the stadium, then 10,000, 15,000, 20,000. if you look at the university of michigan win over ohio state yesterday. over 500,000 people there. a game they are not going to forget for a long time. judy, speaking of fans, they are back in the fans n sporting events. new york here, broadway is back in action. you talked about that in our earlier segment. as a perform e what has it been like for you to have the energy,
were for quite some time. it is really fun to to crowd work when you can t see someone s face or tell if they are laughing or smiling. i have to say the energy from a live audience it s just like sports. my son plays college basketball. it is just being there and feeding off of that energy. it is just so important. and those fake people in the stadiums. i couldn t watch the games. what was that j with the card board people in the seats what is that? like everyone was that drove me crazy. it is the first time that we have gone through a pandemic in the modern era. we are still trying to figure this out as we go along. true. hopefully we won t go back to that. i have to ask really quickly about the olympics. all eyes are turning to the winter olympics. for many of us, i mean we could barely just we were just getting over the summer games because of the fact that they
performance at all when you re performing? such a good question. as you were talking about sports i was thinking about being in a comedy club which is usually smaller than a stadium. intimate. people are stuck. it is very intimate. people are on top of each other. we re spitting. it was, first of all they shut them all down. we were doing them via zoom which was hell especially with unmuted people screaming at their spouses in the middle of your set. being, hearing laughter live was the most amazing thing. we didn t hear it until may. they are very vigilant at the comedy clubs especially in new york. have you to show a vax card and id. there are no masks but there were for quite sometime. it is really fun to do crowd work when you can t see someone s face or tell if they are laughing or smiling.