New podcast creates safe space for athletes to share political opinions

Emily Austin has mastered the art of mixing both sports and political talk into a career.

The 24-year-old has interviewed President Donald Trump and Jalen Brunson, and she is putting her expertise into her own podcast, “The Emily Austin Show.”

The podcast dropped on Tuesday, and her first guest was former New York governor turned city mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo. Other episodes will feature Mitchell Robinson, Ryan Garcia and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“It was never my intention to get political, but sometimes duty calls, that’s what I tell people,” Austin said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

That duty was, while attending Hofstra University, she realized she “can’t live under another Biden presidency” while she was not allowed on campus due to her vaccination status. At the time, though, Austin already had a successful NBA podcast, “The Hoop Chat,” which she used to her advantage.

“I was just really fed up. At this point, I had to do something about it, because I recognized that I had a platform, and what’s the point of having a platform if you don’t advocate for something you believe in?” Austin said.

So, she decided to backpocket her love and expertise for sports and turn into a political commentator, while mixing in sports whenever necessary.

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“What I’m happy that came out of the podcast is everyone asks me ‘How do you stay political and stay in sports?’ What I’ve come to realize is every person on my podcast that is an athlete has their own political opinion, too,” Austin said. “And a lot of them agree with me, and a lot of them don’t. But at least we have that relationship to have dialogue about it.

“You don’t know how many NBA players I’ve interviewed who are MAGA, and they’ll never feel comfortable coming out. I’m trying to encourage them, the way your teammates are OK with being a Democrat, you need to be okay with disagreeing with them and being a Republican. There just needs to be a safe space for people to have their political opinions.”

Bringing out athletes’ political views is not even Austin’s end goal, she said. All she wants is comfortability to be able to discuss issues, no matter what side of the coin an athlete, or any politician, is on.

“If the conversation stays strictly on sports, so be it. But if, let’s just say I have a guest coming up that is going to announce that he voted for Trump, and it will break the Internet, that’s coming too,” Austin said. “So it’s really just like a safe space of dialogue that covers everything with no limitations. I don’t want anyone to feel that there’s any boundaries or any lines that can’t be crossed. Whatever needs to be said is going to be said on ‘The Emily Austin Show.’”

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