#287 - Randall Balmer on PASSION PLAYS

Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest and John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College, chats with Trey Elling about PASSION PLAYS: HOW RELIGION SHAPED SPORTS IN NORTH AMERICA. Topics include:

• Baseball as counterculture to the Industrial Revolution (2:32)
• Football benefitting from the US Civil War (17:08)
• Hockey as a metaphor for Canada (28:24)
• Basketball's similarities to American urbanization (35:50)
• Are sports the new opiate of the masses (43:56)