The CUSP Show

Joe Favorito and Tom Richardson welcome Ally Corbin, VP of Custom Research at Navigate and a 15-year veteran of the Chicago-based sports marketing and analytics agency, to discuss her career, her research, and her surprising second life as “Tornado Alley,” a retired competitive roller derby player. Corbin explains how a chance invitation to a bout in 2019 led her to the Arizona Derby Dames, where she raced bank-track derby and eventually won a national championship before stepping away from the sport. She then shifts to her work at Navigate, unpacking how the agency designs custom research for brands, leagues, and collegiate athletics, why quantitative methods have overtaken traditional focus groups, and the quality controls her team builds in to guard against bad data. Corbin also digs into Navigate’s “fan friction” research and its “utility is the new visibility” philosophy, and closes with her take on how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are redefining fandom, why ratings data deserves scrutiny, and her advice for job seekers trying to break into sports research.
Connect with Ally: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allycorbin/
Subscribe to the CUSP Show: Substack | YouTube
The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecuspshow.substack.com

Joe Favorito welcomes Mike Breen, ESPN’s voice of the NBA and longtime play-by-play announcer for the New York Knicks, for a special episode recorded live at Columbia University. Breen traces his career from calling women’s basketball games at Fordham radio station WFUV alongside future legends like Bob Papa, Charlie Slowes, and Michael Kay, to parking cars at Winged Foot, reffing fifth-grade basketball games, and eventually landing the Knicks radio job after narrowly missing two positions he desperately wanted. Breen shares what it was like working with Don Imus at WNBC, how calling ski jumping at the 2002 Winter Olympics with zero skiing knowledge made him a better broadcaster, and the unlikely ways his refereeing background shaped his understanding of officiating on the air. He also breaks down the craft of building chemistry with analysts, from Clyde Frazier to Jeff Van Gundy to Doris Burke, explaining why every analyst requires a different approach and why communication before tip-off matters as much as anything that happens during the game. Breen closes with a candid look at the only real downside of his career, the road, and how he and his family found a way to make it work over four decades.
Learn more about Mike: https://espnpressroom.com/bio/breen_mike/
Subscribe to the CUSP Show: Substack | YouTube
The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecuspshow.substack.com

Joe Favorito and Tom Richardson welcome Jeremy Bloom, two-time Olympian, former NFL wide receiver, and CEO of the X Games, to discuss a career that spans elite athletics, legal battles with the NCAA, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and now the reinvention of one of the most iconic action sports brands in the world. Bloom opens with the story of his 2002 lawsuit against the NCAA, filed at age 19 when the organization told him he had to give up his Olympic skiing endorsements to play college football at Colorado, and explains why Judge Hale’s ruling that student athletes are third party beneficiaries of the NCAA contract became foundational to every significant amateurism case that followed, including the Alston decision. He shares his frank take on the Protect College Sports Act, arguing that college football and basketball are already professional sports and that Congress is the wrong solution to a problem the sport’s own leaders have failed to fix. The conversation then shifts to the X Games, where Bloom has led a dramatic turnaround by launching a team-based league modeled in part on F1’s approach to storytelling and franchise value, complete with a docuseries, international events, and an 80% increase in TV ratings. He also discusses Owl, his AI officiating company co-founded with Google’s Sergei Brin, and Wish of a Lifetime, his foundation that grants wishes to people aged 80, 90, and 100-plus, inspired by his grandfather who taught him to ski at age three.
Connect with Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremybloom11/
Learn more about Jeremy: https://www.jeremybloom.com/
Subscribe to the CUSP Show: Substack
The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecuspshow.substack.com

Joe Favorito and Tom Richardson welcome Sophie Whitesell, founder of The Giving Game, to discuss how a chance encounter with NBA players led a chief nursing officer from Missouri with no sports background to build a podcast platform dedicated to amplifying athlete philanthropy. Whitesell shares how she cold-DM’d 30 athletes with over a million followers, pitched them on telling their charitable stories rather than their sports ones, and had 12 respond almost immediately. She explains the three-step process behind The Giving Game, a one-hour interview, full editing, and a seven-day social campaign for the athlete’s foundation, and why she targets smaller self-funded organizations that rarely get attention over the major celebrity foundations that already have resources. The conversation also covers her expansion into interactive coloring books that translate athletes’ charitable stories for kids, and why she shifted her marketing strategy from sports fans to cause-driven donors. Whitesell reflects on what she has learned navigating the world of athlete handlers and gatekeepers, why female athletes have been harder to reach, and why she believes the sports world is sitting on an underutilized storytelling opportunity that could transform how fans relate to the athletes they follow.
Connect with Sophie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-whitesell-98107930b/
Subscribe to the CUSP Show: Substack
The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecuspshow.substack.com

Joe Favorito welcomes Travis Snider, former MLB outfielder and co-founder of 3A Athletics, to discuss his 15-year professional baseball career, the mental and emotional challenges that followed, and the youth sports crisis he is now working to address. Snider traces his path from being a first-round draft pick to the Toronto Blue Jays and making his MLB debut at 20, through years of ups and downs across multiple organizations, to the identity crisis he faced at the end of his playing career. He shares how working with executive life coach Seth Taylor helped him understand how childhood experiences shaped him as a player, husband, and father, and how that led to the founding of 3A Athletics, a platform offering parent education courses and coach certifications designed to bring mental and emotional awareness back to youth sports. The conversation covers the $40 billion youth sports industry and why Snider believes the professionalization of children’s athletics is robbing kids of joy, creating burnout, and building identities too fragile to survive failure.
Connect with Travis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-snider23/
Subscribe to the CUSP Show: Substack
The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecuspshow.substack.com