At age 33, with a wife and young son, The Ringer NBA writer Jonathan Tjarks was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He’s reacted with remarkable stoicism to this news, even if he didn’t feel all too stoic at first. Jonathan’s a fascinating guy and someone who’s totally unique in sports media. I loved getting his perspective on life and hope you will too.
Enjoyed this! I've long been impressed with Tjarks because he seemed like he was on such an island compared to his peers.
Two random things:
1) I think another reason why folks from centuries or thousands of years ago had a firmer grasp on the bigger purpose of life is that death was a much more prevalent part of their day-to-day. By and large folks die in hospitals or wither away in retirement homes, and most of us aren't hunting for our food either.
2) "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Faith is grounded in the reality of the past; hope is looking to the reality of the future.
This was moving. I have to take back my suggestion that you allow non-sports topics from to percolate in from the periphery. I believe there is a story to be written (maybe by you) on a number of secularly reared people moving into faith like Tjarks did. It need not be formal entry into organized religion but I find that a number of my peers (and to an extent myself) have sort of arrived at this qualified appreciation for classical or passed down values (I suppose you could also fall into this category if I read between the lines of what you say and write) that are vaguely similar to Tjarks'. It is often accompanied by a greater epistemic appreciation for uncertainty/intractability and skepticism of _institutional_ science (while remaining attached to many of the values of the scientific spirit of inquiry). Some might mistake for conservatism but I think there are a number of nuanced differences to be noted if one is patient (a civil anarchism or communitarianism like that of anthropologist James C Scott might be a better descriptor). Even many of the people studying fields like complexity or tail-risk mathematics (like Taleb, warts and all) could be in this category.
Very interesting conversation and I especially enjoyed the part about finding religion through science. I was raised in the bible belt without religion and to this day don't find much use for faith. Despite being more of a militant atheist in my early adulthood, now I describe myself as a "non-theist." Here's why:
My brother-in-law is a Caltech PhD who works on large telescopes. One project he's been involved with studied some kind of latent background radiation originating from the big bang. From talking to him I learned that we can actually measure the time it took the universe to expand from the singularity to essentially the universe as we know it, and that time turns out to be the tiniest fraction of a second. Faster than the blink of an eye.
I'm struck that we can even measure this, but also that there's no explanation for how it could have happened other than a creation-type event. I'll probably never cross the bridge to theism, with its loving/vengeful god who takes any sort of interest in the lives of his believers, but I'm certainly open to the more deistic idea of god as creator, and that's entirely due to scientific observation.
Thanks for having this meaningful conversation with Tjarks.
Really enjoyed this conversation. Very free flowing and the small snippet about identity was really good, and I re-listened it quite a number of times.
Loved listening to this pod, Tjarks always stands out to me as one of the only openly Christian national sports writers. My fear in the media space is that he would be dismissed or snickered at by basketball and media intelligentsia— but I appreciate that you are willing to engage in discussions with people you agree with, disagree with, or aren’t even sure where you land with in good faith. Great open discussion between each of you. I would suggest to you as someone who seems to be dipping the toes in the water of “there may be more than this” that The Case for Christ By Lee Strobel may be an interesting read for you. An atheist legal journalist who documents his journey interrogating the claims of Christianity. It is intellectually stimulating even if you find yourself in the same place of belief as when you started. Even if this sort of thing is never revisited within your substack— this pod was a treat. And the other topics you’ve covered you have succeeded in finding what interest you and making others interested in it through your writing and podcast. Keep up the great work.
Great podcast Ethan. Cultural commentary has always been on the periphery of your writing at both ESPN and The Athletic, and it's really refreshing to see you kind of go for it with this project.
Really enjoyed the podcast, and I have always appreciated Tjarks unique viewpoints and writing. Glad you weren't afraid to branch out into a different kind of conversation.
To me it boils down to some people say “everything happens for a reason” when I am more apt to say “Everything happens… we apply the reason.” You can’t get into faith and destiny a high power etc without including the variable of human brain straining to make sense in a random world.
Enjoyed this! I've long been impressed with Tjarks because he seemed like he was on such an island compared to his peers.
Two random things:
1) I think another reason why folks from centuries or thousands of years ago had a firmer grasp on the bigger purpose of life is that death was a much more prevalent part of their day-to-day. By and large folks die in hospitals or wither away in retirement homes, and most of us aren't hunting for our food either.
2) "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Faith is grounded in the reality of the past; hope is looking to the reality of the future.
This was moving. I have to take back my suggestion that you allow non-sports topics from to percolate in from the periphery. I believe there is a story to be written (maybe by you) on a number of secularly reared people moving into faith like Tjarks did. It need not be formal entry into organized religion but I find that a number of my peers (and to an extent myself) have sort of arrived at this qualified appreciation for classical or passed down values (I suppose you could also fall into this category if I read between the lines of what you say and write) that are vaguely similar to Tjarks'. It is often accompanied by a greater epistemic appreciation for uncertainty/intractability and skepticism of _institutional_ science (while remaining attached to many of the values of the scientific spirit of inquiry). Some might mistake for conservatism but I think there are a number of nuanced differences to be noted if one is patient (a civil anarchism or communitarianism like that of anthropologist James C Scott might be a better descriptor). Even many of the people studying fields like complexity or tail-risk mathematics (like Taleb, warts and all) could be in this category.
Very interesting conversation and I especially enjoyed the part about finding religion through science. I was raised in the bible belt without religion and to this day don't find much use for faith. Despite being more of a militant atheist in my early adulthood, now I describe myself as a "non-theist." Here's why:
My brother-in-law is a Caltech PhD who works on large telescopes. One project he's been involved with studied some kind of latent background radiation originating from the big bang. From talking to him I learned that we can actually measure the time it took the universe to expand from the singularity to essentially the universe as we know it, and that time turns out to be the tiniest fraction of a second. Faster than the blink of an eye.
I'm struck that we can even measure this, but also that there's no explanation for how it could have happened other than a creation-type event. I'll probably never cross the bridge to theism, with its loving/vengeful god who takes any sort of interest in the lives of his believers, but I'm certainly open to the more deistic idea of god as creator, and that's entirely due to scientific observation.
Thanks for having this meaningful conversation with Tjarks.
Really enjoyed this conversation. Very free flowing and the small snippet about identity was really good, and I re-listened it quite a number of times.
Amazing work Ethan!
Loved listening to this pod, Tjarks always stands out to me as one of the only openly Christian national sports writers. My fear in the media space is that he would be dismissed or snickered at by basketball and media intelligentsia— but I appreciate that you are willing to engage in discussions with people you agree with, disagree with, or aren’t even sure where you land with in good faith. Great open discussion between each of you. I would suggest to you as someone who seems to be dipping the toes in the water of “there may be more than this” that The Case for Christ By Lee Strobel may be an interesting read for you. An atheist legal journalist who documents his journey interrogating the claims of Christianity. It is intellectually stimulating even if you find yourself in the same place of belief as when you started. Even if this sort of thing is never revisited within your substack— this pod was a treat. And the other topics you’ve covered you have succeeded in finding what interest you and making others interested in it through your writing and podcast. Keep up the great work.
I really enjoyed this. It was refreshing to hear a conversation of consequence where curiosity and grace were present.
Great podcast Ethan. Cultural commentary has always been on the periphery of your writing at both ESPN and The Athletic, and it's really refreshing to see you kind of go for it with this project.
This is a great conversation, and quite moving.
Really enjoyed the podcast, and I have always appreciated Tjarks unique viewpoints and writing. Glad you weren't afraid to branch out into a different kind of conversation.
I initially stumbled on him through an interesting short review of the book The Power Broker on Robert Moses. https://tjarksbooks.blogspot.com/2016/10/
To me it boils down to some people say “everything happens for a reason” when I am more apt to say “Everything happens… we apply the reason.” You can’t get into faith and destiny a high power etc without including the variable of human brain straining to make sense in a random world.
Great podcast. I’m an agnostic, but it’s interesting to hear different perspectives on life.