Jody Avirgan (born ) is an American podcast host and producer known for his work around sports and politics. He currently hosts '' This Day in Esoteric Political History'' and previously hosted TED's ''Good Sport,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's 30 for 30 Podcasts,'' and the ''

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...

'' ''Politics Podcast.''

Early life and education

Avirgan grew up in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. His parents are the journalists

Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey are a married couple and former journalistic duo who reported on the 1979 Uganda–Tanzania War and Central America in the 1980s. They were unsuccessful plaintiffs in '' Avirgan v. Hull'' (1986), a civil suit alleging ...

. He attended

Sidwell Friends School Sidwell Friends School is a private, college preparatory, Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is ' (), alludi ...

, where he played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, and

ultimate frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

. He continued to play ultimate frisbee at the college, club and professional levels, once making a catch that was featured on ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' and later going on to coach youth teams. Avirgan majored in

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, History of the United States, history, Society of the United States, society, and Culture of the Unit ...

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

, graduating in 2002. His senior thesis was a film and essay about the life of folk singer and labor activist Joe Hill. After he graduated, he spent a year building houses with

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a U.S. non-governmental, and tax-exempt 501(C)(3) Christian nonprofit organization which seeks to build affordable housing. The international ...

before beginning to explore documentary filmmaking and radio.

Career

In 2008, Avirgan became a producer at

WNYC WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...

, where he worked on shows including ''

Freakonomics Radio ''Freakonomics Radio'' is an American public radio program and podcast network which discusses socioeconomic issues for a general audience. While the network, as of 2023, includes five programs, the primary podcast is also named Freakonomics and ...

'' and '' On the Media''. In June 2015, Avirgan joined ''

'' as host of the podcast ''What's the Point,'' about the impacts of

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

daily life Everyday life, daily life or routine life comprises the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. Everyday life may be described as mundane, routine, natural, habitual, or normal. Human diurnality means most peop ...

. In 2016, he began hosting the site's flagship ''FiveThirtyEight'' ''Politics Podcast.'' In 2017, Avirgan became senior producer and host of

's ''30 for 30'' ''Podcasts'', a series of audio documentaries about sports history. On March 31, 2020, Avirgan began hosting the new

Radiotopia Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by Roman Mars (host of '' 99% Invisible'') and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their wo ...

podcast ''This Day in Esoteric Political History'' (later shortened to ''This Day''), which uses events from American political history to explore present-day issues. Avirgan co-hosts with political historians Kellie Carter Jackson and

Nicole Hemmer Nicole Hemmer is an American historian. She is an associate professor of history and director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. She specializes in the history of conservative media ...

. In January 2023, TED premiered the podcast ''Good Sport,'' hosted by Avirgan and featuring interviews with athletes and other professionals in the sports industry. Avirgan owns Roulette Productions, a podcast production company whose shows have included ''Oprahdemics'' and collaborations with the

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

studio 2400Sports.

Personal life

Avirgan is married and lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He has a daughter. In 2016, while hiking Mount Roberts in

Juneau, Alaska Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Southeast Alaska, Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the ...

, Avirgan and his wife became stranded on steep terrain after exiting the main trail. The couple was rescued by helicopter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avirgan, Jody Wesleyan University alumni Sidwell Friends School alumni American sports podcasters 21st-century American journalists ESPN people Living people Year of birth missing (living people)