Tag Archives: sports

Morgan Campbell: My Fighting Family

The episode kicks off with host Karim Kanji and returning guest and new author Morgan Campbell discussing the parallels between the publishing and boxing industries, highlighting the similarities between writers and boxers, editors and trainers, and agents and managers. They emphasize the importance of active promotion in both fields, drawing insightful comparisons between book promotion and the marketing efforts involved in selling pay-per-view boxing events.

The episode then touches on the intricacies of writing a book about family, with Campbell highlighting the complexities of family dynamics and the need to write from his own perspective. They also reflect on their experiences with education, sharing memories of the lack of natural light in their school and the impact of technology on learning.

morgan campbell and karim kanji
morgan campbell and karim kanji with the book my fighting family

Campbell passionately addresses the issue of Black America’s culture being underappreciated and appropriated, emphasizing the lack of authentic love and compensation for their contributions.

The meeting concludes with a discussion about a poignant passage from Campbell’s book, “My Fighting Family Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us,” where Campbell vividly describes a pivotal moment in a high school football game. They also share their thoughts on the upcoming Super Bowl, with Campbell expressing his confidence in the Kansas City Chiefs’ ability to outperform the San Francisco 49ers.

Buy the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/669827/my-fighting-family-by-morgan-campbell/9780771050190 

This is Episode #285 of the Welcome! podcast.

Nabil Karim | ESPN SportsCenter Anchor

Prior to joining ESPN, Karim was an anchor and reporter on Canada’s leading sports network (TSN) since 2011. He hosted TSN’s news and information show SportsCentre and covered a variety of major sporting events including the 2013 and 2014 IIHF World Junior Championships and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Karim also hosted TSN’s coverage of NCAA March Madness, the 2016 FIBA Americas, and TSN’s live coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games and Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

A native of Vancouver, Karim graduated from Simon Fraser University where he majored in Communications and received a broadcast journalism degree from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

This is Episode #256 of the Welcome! podcast.

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James Duthie | TSN Broadcaster, Author

James Duthie and Karim Kanji
James Duthie and Karim Kanji

James Duthie is an award-winning sports broadcaster with Canada’s TSN. He is also the author of many books including Beauties: Hockey’s Greatest Untold Stories. James was/is also an aspiring musician and songwriter. Near the end of our conversation you will discover a quirk about James that he shares (kinda) with recent guest Harnarayan Singh.

This is Episode #248 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Harnarayan Singh

Harnarayan Singh is the author of the brand new book, ONE GAME AT A TIME.

Bonino Bonino Bonino!

Video clips of the Hockey Night in Punjabi broadcast of Nick Bonino’s goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins immediately went viral, amplifying the profile of Harnarayan Singh, the voice behind the call.

In this conversation with Harnarayan we talk about his love of hockey and Canada while also challenging both to be better. We talked about his relationship with Ron MacLean and his sister Gurdeep. Of course we talked about his journey from calling games with a toy microphone as a kid to calling Hockey Night in Canada games across the country and everything in between.

We also discover the one thing most people don’t know about Harnarayan Singh. You will be surprised!

This is Episode #241 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Sami Jo Small | 3X Olympian, 5X World Champion

Sami Jo Small is a three-time Canadian Olympic ice hockey goalie (two golds and one silver) and a five-time World Champion. A graduate of Stanford University in mechanical engineering, she now works as a Certified Speaking Professional, delivering messages on how to build successful teams as well as successful teammates. From Winnipeg, Manitoba, she now lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

This is Episode #240 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Perdita Felicien

In today’s episode I speak with former world champion and Olympian Perdita Felicien about how she’s dealing with COVID19. We also discuss the fallout of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics cancellation and what is means for athletes.

Perdita Felicien is a 10x Canadian Champion, a 2x World Champion and a 2x Olympian.

I first spoke with Perdita on Episode #126.

Please visit http://mykingandbay.com to learn more about the #SOYBFaceMaskChallenge. Let’s fight COVID19 together!

This is Episode #215 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Ali Ghafour

My next guest is a former Team Canada Taekwondo member who represented Canada at multiple international competitions worldwide. He is also a former Board member of Taekwondo Canada. Today, he is the founder and CEO of 20/20 Armor.

The vision of 20/20 Armor is:
– To be the standard scoring & training equipment for all martial arts.
– Be the foundation technology for and create a spectator friendly professional martial art league

20/20 Armor is backed by sports investors including LeAD (www.leadsports.com) a program founded by the grand children of Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas.

Please welcome to the show, Ali Ghafour.

This is Episode #209 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Morgan P. Campbell

Morgan P. Campbell is an award-winning journalist who writes for the Toronto Star. His column, Sports Prism is the Star’s weekly look at the intersection of sports and race issues, rights and social concerns.

In this episode we discuss:

– Black basketball players being called out for not playing for Team Canada
– Black NHL hockey players and racism
– Colin Kaepernick’s ongoing feud with the NFL
– Why we should all be excited about the Toronto Wolfpack rugby team
– Morgan’s infatuation with The 90 Day Fiance

This is Episode #199 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Sean Fitz-Gerald

According to his LinkedIn profile, my next guest has spent the last 4-5 years herding elementary school aged children through their first steps in house-league soccer, ball hockey and ice hockey.

In 2015, he was named Sportswriter of the year by Sports Media Canada.

In 2016, he joined The Athletic to help build, lead and grow it’s Toronto operations.

This past spring, Penguin Random House published his book, “Before The Lights Go Out: A Season Inside A Game Worth Saving”.

Please Welcome! to the show, the senior national writer for Canada for The Athletic, Sean Fitz-Gerald.

This is Episode #195 of the Welcome! podcast.

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Jaime Stein: Chief Client Officer, ICUC

Jaime Stein – formerly from Toronto – is now a Vancouver resident and Chief Client Officer for Winnipeg-based, ICUC.

Stein joined me inside the Girth Radio studio for an in-depth chat about his travels, his passions, work and why Canada has the best sunsets in the world!

This is episode #133  of the Welcome! podcast.

Here are some of the things we talked about:

  • The SportsConnectTO panel that started the friendship between Jaime Stein and Karim Kanji.
  • Jaime’s experience in preparing for and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
  • His work with the National Public Cord Blood Bank.
  • Doing varsity football play-by-play for Queen’s University in Kingston while going to school at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
  • Meeting Keith Pelley while at TSN helped Jaime Stein kickstart his professional sports broadcasting career.
  • Calling the play-by-play for the Toronto Argonauts.
  • His role at ING Bank in Canada.
  • Working the social media war room as ING changed their name and branding to Tangerine.
  • Why Jaime Stein had enough of Toronto and moved to Vancouver.
  • His role at Vancouver’s Hootsuite.
  • Leaving Hootsuite to join another company helping brands navigate the social media space, ICUC.
  • Jaime Stein finally ends the debate on which city province has the better sunsets: Ontario or British Columbia.

Listen below:

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Music by Afraaz Mulji.

If you liked this episode you will also like the following conversations with other former podcast alumni: