Haha. Maybe I just need to marry a successful triathlete (as long as I’m careful about the supplements I’m taking, of course). It seems an easier path.
But yes, I see your point. When it comes to listeners, what you’re saying is most likely true. A bit more nuanced and complicated when it comes to getting guests on, though.
Do you have your eyes on someone in particular? (not an athlete you coach, don’t want to emulate BS too much)
No one should give you grief for not beating your guests over their heads about their past or someone else’s past.
You will never get anywhere in life or interviews (as you already doubt know) if you are focused on digging up mud in the past and flinging it at their face.
I really appreciate your responses here to a difficult question I posed. I’ll be continuing to tune in to the pod.
I’m just one of us mate, I’m not above chatting about triathlon (or anything) with anyone! Only difference is I was lacking some direction so decided to start a podcast a touch before every man and their dog had a podcast and got very lucky with timing.
Anything you wanna chat about in the future whether it’s the podcast or triathlon, just chuck it here and I’ll get back to you.
Sorry for cutting in, but Ari Klau has a girlfriend 
@JackKelly-TTH I completely understand your position. I’m the one that’s always unhappy about athletes advertising the Kingdom of Bahrain to cover up the continuing executions of peaceful demonstrators, but I’m not entitled to have media personalities fight that battle because I tell them to. Similar with Sutton (who is also small potatoes, in the wrongdoing department, compared to the aforesaid).
I wouldn’t class Jack Kelly as a professional broadcaster. He may do it for a living but he certainly isn’t professional.
Lets be fair though, you interviewed Els, not Brett. People need to understand that. Yes, his name was mentioned, but it kind of has to be, the Podcast is about training. He is the coach. Next thing, we will all be heading down the Harry Potter/Lord Voldemort scenario and you can never speak Brett’s name. Just my 2cents…
Ouch!!!
I’m a Fred Funk man, @kajet, you should know this by now!! 
And yeah, I’ve never gone near the BV13 thing purely because I’m uneducated on it. I also know that the list of athlete’s supported by them is essentially everyone who’s been good in our sport for over a decade now! Tricky areas.
Thoughts:
If you ask the difficult questions you’ll knock out half your guests. There is a reason why everyone goes on Babbitville. (I love Bob but there are never any probing questions).
You’ve gotta have downloads to be (financially) sustainable as a podcast.
Podcast competition is strong. How many triathlon podcasts are there? IMTalk, Fitter radio, PTN, JYD, Purple patch, real coaching, talking triathlon, that triathlon show, and then a whole lots that have ceased (Greg Bennett show, TRS, Endurance Planet, more). Some of these exist to pump up the related coaching businesses. The remainder don’t.
So you’re caught in a bind. Ask difficult questions > lose guests. Be controversial > lose sponsors and people try to cancel you. Don’t ask difficult questions > social media anger.
As an aside the intro music for TTH as a great choice (for the non Australians it’s a remix of the old ABC news intro)
well but of course this is the reason why talbot gets away with constantly mocking you when he says THE THOUGH questions which you claimed you would ask
and don’t.
and I don’t say what you do is wrong , at all , the issue is how you try try to sell yourself as the journalist and the guy that asks the tough questions.
but really you are the tri buddy, and I don’t mean this in a negative way.
as Sutto says pick and stick either be the tri buddy, or the journalist but don’t try to be both within a couple of weeks.
its the with your question you play shy to ask questions about love and then ask them anyway. either ask them or don’t but don’t say you would never ask the. question but reading it form a card makes it right.
personally what I would say. whenever you mention Sutton you should say at the end of the talk, as an footnote the the interview has finished and the guest has left, while he is a top coach you would not advise females under a certain age to work with him given his past .
ie I have no problem if he coaches mature females but, but he should not realy be allowed to work with under 23s and since he does he is asking for it to be reminded of his past.
and it does not have to be negative just as a matter of fact.
I think part of where people fall down with this is the blanket expectation of “media” and what that might entail.
Your vertical / niche is pretty well defined. Sticking to that script is what makes you successful. You’re a professional content creator (and no, I do not mean that derisively). I don’t think you’d call yourself a journalist in the Big J school, I’m going to do a bunch of investigative reporting sense in the word. You don’t ask Martin Scorsese to direct a Marvel film – they’re doing two different things.
The “problem,” per se, is that our industry is so small and the pool of us that cover the sport even smaller, so people get asked to wear multiple hats that may not necessarily fit.
TL;DR – don’t change the pod. Have others deal in that space if they choose to. And literally everybody in this industry has to throw the flame retardant suit on at some point – whether here, some other DMs, email, etc. It always passes.
But one of the issues with “getting over it” is that it will never go away. The best coach in the sport is a persona non grata, and I assume still banned from many countries (maybe those bans expire after certain time). So even if you believe in 2nd chances you have athletes like “pssst don’t ask me about him, cool”, so then that to me is almost as fascinating turning into basically a social experience. And again the reality is that I think he wasn’t the monster sexual predator that some cases have been, or else no one would be talking over beers to let it go. And then of course he is a hella good coach so we just basically compartmentalize it all. That’s probably the bigger discussion point at this point imo.
When an athlete has to say pre-interview- don’t touch X subject, that generally is really piss poor form to say to a media member but then again if you pry your cutting off likely access to athletes, so then of course you “let it go”, but only to save your own self interests. It’s all sorta fascinating
That’s basic media 101- the guest generally don’t get to dictate the interview. Except in cases where you need the interview more than they need to be interviewed. I find that fascinating that people have gone so far as to say not to ask about him to Jack. I’m fascinated more by, so how often is that brought up for athletes to deal with? Weekly? Never? For them to automatically say no BS questions sorta is showing it’s still very much the elephant in the room.
One the biggest differences between triathlon and major mainstream sports is that the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc players and coaches are required to talk to the media. It’s in their contracts and they get fined or penalized if they don’t. So the mainstream media can ask any questions without any real repercussions as that player or coach is required to be back at the podium or with a microphone in front him/her in a few days regardless.
We don’t have that in triathlon so athletes or coaches can self select who they give interviews to or who gets to ask the questions. So Jack has to flirt with a line to ask questions the audience wants to hear without pissing off the athlete or coach.
Odds on who will be triathlon’s 1st “I’m here so I won’t get fined” answer to every media appearance and question if we ever get tougher media obligations. (Pink)
Sam Laidlow
Smart money choice there.
Sam Long would be a close second.
Third, if he were still racing, would be Starykowicz.
We actually do (sort of) I just don’t know if we are really good at doing that… but we have a lot of pro press conferences where pro athletes are asked some “told” they will be infront of the media before races. They can’t get away from any questions at that point
So yes, triathlon media is really bad about asking questions when we do get people at the podium. I’m the biggest Bob Babbit critic. He may be a great guy but he asks the biggest softball questions and references races from 40 fucking years ago when some the athletes weren’t even alive. And the IM pro panels are a bit of joke with their predictable scripted questions. Also, don’t get me started on the “fun” questions like what’s your favorite color or what’s your spirit animal. Give me a break…. 
/rant
Are those panels really mandatory though? I believe Lionel mentioned he turned the Kona panel down last year. And IM seems very selective who gets chosen to be on their panel. What about mandatory interviews for those that may not have finished well or dropped out of the race. They only do a press conference from the top 5 at a WC. Overall, I think there is much to be improved on all sides.
I was actually thinking Knibb, but not in the asshole Marshawn Lynch way, but in the cute “we’ll see” vagueness of answering questions. It seems like she detests any part of the media obligations side of racing, as she likes the whole just show up and win and go back to being as private as she can.
I think the day before race panel interviews are sorta by default the easy softballs for both the media and the athlete. Your not getting any “breaking news” from those Q/A’s. That goes for just about any sport, that isn’t the time for the hard hitting, I want the “real” answer. Those panels are essentially designed for coach speak from everyone.