‘Red Summer’ Producer Trailblazer Studios Moves Into Podcasting With ‘American Sport’ Series

Peter White
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

EXCLUSIVE: Trailblazer Studios, one of the company’s behind Dawn Porter’s Tulsa massacre doc Red Summer for Nat Geo, is moving into podcasting.

The production is kicking off this move with the launch of American Sport, a history of how sports became an indelible part of the American experience.

More from Deadline

The show, which launches on April 21, is hosted by Matt Andrews, one of country’s most reputable sports history professors.

American Sport will explore the sporting events that have defined our culture and changed the course of American history. It will go beyond the sports page telling of races won, touchdowns scored, and players rounding the bases, and explains how those moments on the field of play have been intricately tied to ideas and debates in our nation about race, class, gender, ethnicity, capitalism, and American identity.

The plan is to then adapt the podcast, and other future podcasts in the sports, social justice and true crime genres, into television series.

American Sport was developed and created by Matt Andrews. Katye Rone and Jeff Lanter serve as executive producers. Casey Helmick is consulting producer, with Aurelia Belfield as producer.

Andrews said, “In American Sport, we will explore how Americans used sports like baseball, basketball, boxing, track and field, and horse racing to make claims of group pride as well as racial, ethnic, and gender superiority. But I will also tell you how other Americans used those same sports to challenge those claims. These ‘us v. them’ debates in American sports history sometimes culminated with lives being lost. As you will hear in our podcast, sports are not mere games and frivolous distractions. They are serious business.”

“The expansion into podcasting allows us to be creatively nimble and amplify our voice in the premium scripted and nonfiction landscape,” added Jeff Lanter, president and COO of Trailblazer Studios. “It also allows us the opportunity to tell the stories we want to tell beyond the boundaries of linear television.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.