In episode 33, Kevin chats with Mark Lazerus, senior NHL writer at The Athletic and Chicago Blackhawks beat writer. "Laz," who's in his 14th season covering the Blackhawks, has been named one of the top three columnists in the country twice in the past three years by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Before Lazerus was chronicling the Hawks' Stanley Cup wins, or more recently, their rebuild, he was designing newspapers in Northwest Indiana and covering high school and Valparaiso sports. You'll hear about his internships, the first hockey game he covered in Pittsburgh, and what it was like to have high school players' parents yell at him. Hear how Mark Lazerus broke in.
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Judy Battista, NFL Network senior national columnist
In episode 32, Kevin chats with Judy Battista, NFL Network senior national columnist. Battista is on "The Insiders" on NFL Network Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 p.m. ET. She's been writing for NFL.com and discussing the league on NFL Network since 2013, and had previously been at the New York Times. Before Battista became an authority on the NFL, she was covering local news in her hometown of Miami. She got her start 35 years ago at the Miami Herald, and she'll discuss how she got into journalism, and what it was like jumping in to covering the Miami Hurricanes teams of the early 90's. Hear how Judy Battista broke in.
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Sarah Kustok, NBA analyst
In episode 31, Kevin chats with Sarah Kustok, Brooklyn Nets analyst on the YES Network. A two-time winner of the New York Emmy Award, Kustok was the first-ever solo female analyst for an NBA team. She also does NFL sidelines on Fox and is part of CBS Sports' "We Need To Talk." Before becoming a pioneer in the game analyst space, Kustok was a player herself, a star basketball player at DePaul University. She'll discuss how she transitioned into media, a field she hadn't previously considered, and the litany of early assignments she took on, from high school football to indoor lacrosse to late nights at the local Fox station, before getting her first break at Comcast Sports-Net Chicago. Sarah offers great advice to up-and-coming broadcasters in her origin story. Hear how Sarah Kustok broke in.
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Marcus Thompson II, senior columnist at The Athletic
In episode 30, Kevin chats with Marcus Thompson, senior columnist at The Athletic in the Bay Area. Thompson is the author of "Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry" and was a 2025 nominee for the Dan Jenkins Medal in Excellence in Sportswriting. Thompson recently covered the Track and Field championships and the WNBA Finals before being there for the beginning of the Warriors season, a sign of his versatility. His love for writing began when he read newspapers with his grandma, and you'll learn about the internships that led him back to the Bay for his first job, and what it was like covering the NBA for the first time. Hear how Marcus Thompson broke in.
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Ken Rosenthal, senior MLB writer at The Athletic and Fox Sports broadcaster
In episode 29, Kevin chats with Ken Rosenthal, senior baseball writer at The Athletic and Emmy-winning broadcaster for Fox Sports’ MLB coverage, including this week’s World Series. Rosenthal has been one of the most prominent news breakers in the sport. His name is synonymous with baseball, which he has covered since the late 80’s. He’ll talk about the editor at an internship who doubted him, his first job in York, Pennsylvania, and covering a multitude of sports — including harness racing — in New Jersey. Hear how Ken Rosenthal broke in.
About Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast
Kevin Fishbain, senior writer at The Athletic, interviews sports media personalities about their origin stories. Each week, reporters, columnists, play-by-play announcers, sports radio hosts, television anchors, producers and more will tell Kevin about their first jobs in the industry, and how they broke in.
Listen to Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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