Every year, Spotify users feel routine excitement as the holiday season rolls around, but not because of gingerbread houses or Christmas carolers. Podcast addicts and music junkies alike swarm to the streaming app to discover their Spotify Wrapped, or their yearly listening trends cleverly synthesized with an animated video reel.  

In addition to gifting users with every imaginable detail of their audio consumption behaviors (like total number of hours listened and personal audio auras), Spotify releases a playlist of the “Best New Podcasts of 2021,” a list where Spotify celebrates twenty podcasts featuring the platform’s “favorite inspiring creators who pushed boundaries this year.” Blue Wire’s very own Spinsters basketball podcast was highlighted on the playlist this year.  

Co-hosted by Jordan Ligons and Haley O’Shaughnessy, Spinsters features conversations on the latest basketball news on Tuesdays and long-form reporting on Thursdays. Jordan and Haley have hosted a number of special guests week-to-week, such as Katie Nolan, Josiah Johnson, and Mina Kimes. Described simply but accurately as “a basketball podcast for people who like  basketball,” on Spinsters, listeners can expect to have a laugh with the hilarious duo, learn new insight on the hoops world’s biggest stars and storylines, or delve in into important issues that often intersect with basketball.

The two journalists dive beyond surface-level hoops analysis as most pods do into uncovered angles in the basketball world, asking questions like, “why have there been so few openly queer athletes competing in male sports?” “How do we respond when a player we cheer for commits harm?” “What lessons from the ‘90s HIV crisis can the NBA apply to the covid pandemic?” and “What are the challenges that come with juggling pregnancy and motherhood with a basketball career?”

Spinsters was also featured in Apple’s New and Noteworthy section earlier this year.  

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