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SI Media Podcast: Featuring authors Jeff Passan and Joe Drape

On this episode of the SI Media Podcast, host Richard Deitsch interviews a pair of guests—Yahoo Sports MLB columnist Jeff Passan and The New York Times horse racing writer Joe Drape—about their newly published books.

Welcome to episode No. 51 of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch. In this podcast, which is published weekly, Deitsch interviews members of the sports media about their work and interesting people about the sports media.

This week’s podcast features a pair of guests: Yahoo Sports MLB columnist Jeff Passan, the author of The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, and The New York Times horse racing writer Joe Drape, the author of American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s Legendary Rise.

On this episode, Passan discusses how why he wrote the book, how to get year-long access to subjects, what it was like interviewing Sandy Koufax, the most interesting single story in baseball this year, why Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens should be in the Hall of Fame and more.

Drape discuses why we should still care about American Pharoah, his experience inside a thoroughbred breeding shed, the personalities of Bob Baffert and Ahmed Zayat, the favorites for the 2016 Kentucky Derby, why stories about the treatment of horses resonate, where American Pharoah ranks historically and more. 

A reminder: you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher, and you can view all of SI’s podcasts here. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please comment here or tweet at Deitsch.