Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest and John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College, chats with Trey Elling about PASSION PLAYS: HOW RELIGION SHAPED SPORTS IN NORTH AMERICA. Topics include:

Baseball as counterculture to the Industrial Revolution (2:32)
Football benefitting from the US Civil War (17:08)
Hockey as a metaphor for Canada (28:24)
Basketball's similarities to American urbanization (35:50)
Are sports the new opiate of the masses (43:56)