Brain on Sports Podcast: What we talk about when we talk about trash talk

Brain on Sports Podcast: SI executive editor Jon Wertheim and Tufts University psychology professor Sam Sommers look at the hidden side of games, athletes, owners, and officials. In this week’s episode, Wertheim and Sam discuss trash talk in its many forms and why it's so prevalent in the sports world.

“This is Your Brain on Sports" is a new podcast from Sports Illustrated in which SI executive editor Jon Wertheim and Tufts University psychology professor Sam Sommers look at the hidden side of games, athletes, owners, and officials. In this week’s episode, Wertheim and Sommers explore the fine art of trash talk and its place in the sports word.

From the verbal jabs boxers trade at pre-fight press conferences to the personal comments Nick Kyrgios lobbed across the net at Stan Wawrinka at the Rogers Cup earlier this month, trash talk has become as common to sports on all levels as the action itself. Wertheim and Sommers discuss the origins of trash talk as a competitive strategy and the varying objectives behind the psychological tactics used most often by athletes, coaches and fans.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and check back every week for a new episode.