This episode of the Grim Drive Podcast, where we explore mental health through the lens of professional sports and athletes, takes a look at Jackie MacMullan + Mental Health in Sports Media.
Jackie MacMullan is an American freelance newspaper sportswriter and NBA columnist for the sports website ESPN.com, and also works for the Ringer. She is very well known, particularly in the Greater Boston area where she is from, for her balanced, insightful approach to sports journalism and her ability to connect with athletes and get them to open up about personal topics. In 2018, Jackie was instrumental in Kevin Love’s decision to open up about his mental health journey, and she ultimately created a fantastic and impactful five-part series on ESPN on the state of mental health in the NBA. This five-part series covered the fight to fix the NBA’s mental health problem, mental health and black athletes, mental health and medication, the life of a referee, and the future of mental health in the NBA. We discuss our takeaways from this five-part series, as well as the current and future state of sports media with regard to the topic of mental health.
*The Grim Drive Podcast is a way for people to learn about mental fitness, mental health, and mental illness, through the lens of sports. We want to do our part to further reduce the stigma associated with mental health by highlighting the athletes who have shown strength through vulnerability, spoken up, and spoken out. We want to provide listeners with mental health education, to raise awareness and reduce risk, maximizing the path to mental fitness.
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Jackie MacMullan episode related links:
- Charity: SameHere: www.samehereglobal.org
- Link to Five part piece by her: https://nba.nbcsports.com/2018/08/24/read-jackie-macmullans-five-part-series-on-mental-health-in-the-nba/
All Five parts (indiv. links):
Other:
- https://www.boston.com/sports/media/2020/05/06/jackie-macmullan-nba-writer
- https://barrettsportsmedia.com/2020/09/18/jackie-macmullen-gets-new-espn-deal-joins-the-ringer/
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