I like to think of Conversations with Sports Fans as the little podcast that could.
When I launched it over four years ago I envisioned speaking to many of the sports fans I knew personally, and once I was finished talking to my them, I figured the show would have run its course.
Here we are 285 episodes later and I’ve most assuredly left my Rolodex a time or two.
The latest example is this episode’s guest, Merrimack College associate professor Dr. Aaron Mansfield.
Aaron contacted me about joining Conversations, and as I researched his credentials, I felt like he’d be a fine fit for this audience.
Aaron, whose Ph.D. is in Sports Consumer Behavior, works in Merrimack’s Sports Management Program and lists his areas of expertise on Merrimack’s website as “healthy fandom, sports consumer behavior, health and well-being, and sports marketing.” He focuses much of his research on the relationship between sports fandom and well-being.
I viewed my Conversation with Aaron as moving down similar paths as those with Indiana University’s Dr. Edward Hirt (S:3, E:7) and Murray State University’s Dr. Daniel Wann (S:4, E:40), a pair of academics whose roles are exploring the psychology of sports fans.
Aaron and I certainly discuss that, but we also spend a fair amount of time on one of his favorite research topics: the relationship between being a sports fan and one’s personal health. It’s a topic I hadn’t previously spent much time considering, but Aaron provides ample food for thought (pun fully intended).
If you’d like to keep the Conversation going with Aaron, I recommend connecting with him on LinkedIn where he frequently posts thought-provoking items.
- Reminder: The deadline to enter to win an author-signed copy of last episode’s guest, Danny Funt’s book, Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, is Sunday, September 13, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Email your interest to hilldouglast@gmail.com.