Navigating Inclusion and Fairness: Trans Athletes in Sports

For this "Summer Friday" we've put together some of our favorite conversations this year:

• Derek Thompson, staff writer at The Atlantic, author of the "Work in Progress" newsletter and host of the podcast "Plain English," and Ezra Klein, New York Times opinion columnist and host of their podcast, the "Ezra Klein Show," co-authors of Abundance (Simon & Schuster, 2025), discuss their new book that argues limits placed by past generations to protect jobs and the environment are preventing solving shortages today.
• Bob Costas, sportscaster and talk show host, recent recipient of the Baseball Digest lifetime achievement award, reflects on the state of baseball and other sports today.
• Katie Barnes, ESPN senior writer and author of Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates (St. Martin's Press, 2023),Katie Barnes, ESPN senior writer and author of Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates (St. Martin's Press, 2023), discusses the controversy surrounding trans women in competitive sports, fact-checks ideas the broader public holds about fairness and gender in athletics, and talks about current rules various leagues already set in place to ensure equity and inclusion.

These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:

Building Solutions (Mar 18, 2025)

Bob Costas Reflects (May 7, 2025)

Parsing the Facts of Trans Women in Competitive Sports (Jun 3, 2025)