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The Believer

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“Amane’s boyhood was mangled in the global soccer machine, and he is determined to fix that machine from the inside.”

—from “Ferryman of Dreams,” an essay by Paul Collins and Andrew Nelson

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Ferryman of Dreams - Believer Magazine

1. “Kid, that’s not how things work here. And where are you from? What’s your nationality? How old are you?” The words jolted sixteen-year-old Amane Dramera into a state of confusion so that everythin...

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January 14, 2026 at 9:28 PM

The Believer

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“You kind of have to be who you are. If you try to change, you fuck it up, I’d imagine.”

—Don “Nellie” Nelson, from a profile by Joseph Bien-Kahn

www.thebeliever.net/island-time/

Island Time - Believer Magazine

I call Don Nelson from my rental car, which I’ve parked by some food trucks near the Kahului Airport. It rings through, which means I’m welcomed to the island by a sardonic voicemail: “Hey, you’ve rea...

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January 14, 2026 at 6:29 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“I think of a soccer season as a polyphonic novel. If you follow a team, there are kind of mini arcs and then larger narrative arcs.”

— @danielgalarcon.bsky.social, interviewed by @jennitaur.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/no-one-gave-...

No One Gave It to You - Believer Magazine

During my senior year of high school, a guidance counselor who had it in for me gleefully noticed I was missing a semester’s worth of PE. I still have the paper on the Cupertino High School letterhead...

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January 14, 2026 at 3:45 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“People love football because it’s the most exciting sport on earth. I believe that when people talk about it, they should sound as excited as the fans.”

— @minakimes.bsky.social, interviewed by @sarahenni.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

An Interview with Mina Kimes - Believer Magazine

For most of my life, I was a die-hard sports fan who considered SportsCenter as much a part of a balanced breakfast as a bowl of Wheaties. But then I turned thirty, got divorced, moved to a new city, ...

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January 13, 2026 at 2:58 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“The greatest bliss I find in my work comes from completely forgetting I have a body. Which isn’t overall ideal for, like, how to lead a life.”

— @rokwon.bsky.social, interviewed by @jennitaur.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/no-one-gave-...

No One Gave It to You - Believer Magazine

During my senior year of high school, a guidance counselor who had it in for me gleefully noticed I was missing a semester’s worth of PE. I still have the paper on the Cupertino High School letterhead...

www.thebeliever.net

January 12, 2026 at 10:52 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“I love all the tactile, physical things about fishing. It transports me to a zone of the imagination.”

—Thomas McGuane, interviewed by Mattie C. Govan

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

An Interview with Thomas McGuane - Believer Magazine

It will come as no surprise to longtime readers of Thomas McGuane’s work that while I was speaking with him, I was moved by his kindness, his incisive insight, and, above all, his mischievous sense of...

www.thebeliever.net

January 12, 2026 at 3:30 PM

Reposted by The Believer

Litsa Dremousis

@litsadremousis.bsky.social

While we're all praising Wanda Sykes:

I had the good fortune to interview her 20 years ago for The Believer @thebeliever.net

We discussed everything from Octavia Butler to representation to her dog Riley:

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An Interview with Wanda Sykes - Believer Magazine

Wanda Sykes strides onstage at Seattle’s Moore Theatre as Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “Shining Star” blares from the house speakers. The sold-out crowd is on its feet in a rafters-testing ovation. For the n...

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January 12, 2026 at 3:56 AM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“In July of 2025, I flew out to Aurora, Colorado, with my wife and some friends to see if we were still the best forty-something ultimate frisbee players in the United States of America.”

—Will McGrath’s latest Department essay

www.thebeliever.net/event-the-us...

Event: The USA Ultimate Masters Championships - Believer Magazine

FEATURES: Middle-aged athletes Scoobers Coke Slurpees The unknowable future In July of 2025, I flew out to Aurora, Colorado, with my wife and some friends to see if we were still the best forty-someth...

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January 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Looking for something to do this weekend? And the next? Introducing San Francisco is Dead, a calendar of music, literature, art, film, and food events in SF, curated by McSweeney's staff.

www.sanfranciscoisdead.com

San Francisco is Dead

www.sanfranciscoisdead.com

January 9, 2026 at 7:04 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“Amane and his family were the victims of an elaborate fraud, and there was nothing he could do about it.”

Read Paul Collins and Andrew Nelson's piece on Amane Dramera, a soccer prospect who was smuggled into Europe from West Africa.

www.thebeliever.net/ferryman-of-...

Ferryman of Dreams - Believer Magazine

1. “Kid, that’s not how things work here. And where are you from? What’s your nationality? How old are you?” The words jolted sixteen-year-old Amane Dramera into a state of confusion so that everythin...

www.thebeliever.net

January 9, 2026 at 6:59 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“On good days, he was like the lively tactician and Celtics coach Red Auerbach; on worse days, he was like the blunt, beer-drinking coaches of his first days in the league.”

—Joseph Bien-Kahn’s profile of NBA Hall of Fame coach Don “Nellie” Nelson

www.thebeliever.net/island-time/

Island Time - Believer Magazine

I call Don Nelson from my rental car, which I’ve parked by some food trucks near the Kahului Airport. It rings through, which means I’m welcomed to the island by a sardonic voicemail: “Hey, you’ve rea...

www.thebeliever.net

January 9, 2026 at 4:31 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“Mailer possesses the lyrical range and dexterity to put himself into the mind and body of a boxer and describe every aspect of the pugilistic art.”

—Jeffery Renard Allen on The Fight

www.thebeliever.net/sportive-rea...

Sportive Reading - Believer Magazine

The Fight by Norman Mailer Sport: Boxing Setting: Kinshasa, Zaire Publisher: Little, Brown Publication year: 1975 Page count: 239 Norman Mailer produced a handful of masterful books, mostly nonficti...

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January 8, 2026 at 9:49 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“He had his wild strategic theories, but all of them allowed the players to play a loose, pass-heavy, joyful brand of basketball. Off the court, he had a style all his own.”

—Joeseph Bien-Kahn’s profile of NBA Hall of Fame coach Don “Nellie” Nelson

www.thebeliever.net/island-time/

Island Time - Believer Magazine

I call Don Nelson from my rental car, which I’ve parked by some food trucks near the Kahului Airport. It rings through, which means I’m welcomed to the island by a sardonic voicemail: “Hey, you’ve rea...

www.thebeliever.net

January 8, 2026 at 7:13 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“An almost-three-hour-long football soap opera on visual steroids? A garish melodrama about power, commerce, and exploitation? The form matches the content.”

—from Beatrice Loayza’s Resurrector column on Any Given Sunday

www.thebeliever.net/resurrector-...

Resurrector: Any Given Sunday - Believer Magazine

Sports fandom seizes upon our religious instincts, and demands a cocktail of faith and devotion. The typical Hollywood football movie—think Remember the Titans (2000) or Rudy (1993)—tends to bring out...

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January 8, 2026 at 5:08 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“This is a sport that is about nation in a way that American sports are not and can never be.”

—from Chris Almeida’s essay on the colonial roots of cricket in India

www.thebeliever.net/an-avoidable...

An Avoidable Incident - Believer Magazine

It was on the third day of a rowdy but otherwise unremarkable 2001 match in South Africa that the Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar—perhaps the most famous person in his country—began bowling. Quickly...

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January 8, 2026 at 2:06 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“There is more awareness of the fact that women are beasts when it comes to marathons and ultra-experiences.”

—open-water swimmer Amy Appelhans Gubser, interviewed by Bonnie Tsui

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

An Interview with Amy Appelhans Gubser - Believer Magazine

Amy Appelhans Gubser surfaced in the public imagination in May 2024, when she became the first person in history to swim from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands, an epic thirty...

www.thebeliever.net

January 7, 2026 at 8:51 PM

Reposted by The Believer

Longreads

@longreads.com

"I understood, the very first time I saw the painting, that wherever there was space, a ball, a hoop, and one human, there was the possibility of a miracle made possible by human ritual." —Kiese Laymon for @thebeliever.net

The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine

I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my…

www.thebeliever.net

January 7, 2026 at 5:35 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“People bring their kids to COPA to connect them with home while also exposing them to a sort of Silicon Valley engineering marvel that can happen only here.”

—Chris Feliciano Arnold on a tech-forward elite soccer training facility

www.thebeliever.net/bola-cheia/

Bola Cheia - Believer Magazine

Opened in 2020, the COPA Soccer Training Center in Walnut Creek, California, is a 117,000-square-foot, three-story-high labyrinth of sensor-enabled practice spaces where boys and girls ages one throu...

www.thebeliever.net

January 7, 2026 at 2:49 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“Michelle leans her head back and looks up toward the rafters. The best figure skaters and dancers are all actors, yes, yet I couldn’t help but read this as an unadulterated gesture of praise for the divine.”

—Belinda Huijuan Tang on Kwan’s 2002 performance
www.thebeliever.net/annotating-m...

Annotating Michelle Kwan’s “Fields of Gold” Performance, 2002 Winter Olympics - Believer Magazine

Two days before Michelle Kwan skated an exhibition performance to Eva Cassidy’s cover of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” during the 2002 Olympics, she fell while attempting a triple flip jump in the free-ska...

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January 6, 2026 at 6:17 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“Recently I decided to find out in practical terms how a mountain is made. How the illusion is maintained and the sublime is simulated.”

—from “How to Snow a Mountain,” by @elvia-wilk.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/how-to-snow-...

How To Snow a Mountain - Believer Magazine

The first time I tried to ski was a catastrophe. I’ve always been unathletic and clumsy, the kind of person who hates being cold, hates waking up early, hates going fast, hates excessive gear, and gen...

www.thebeliever.net

January 6, 2026 at 5:27 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

With help from a few friends, Kiese Laymon offers an aesthetic analysis of a fateful shot taken by Steph Curry in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

www.thebeliever.net/the-worst-sh...

The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine

I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my Au...

www.thebeliever.net

January 6, 2026 at 2:17 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“I’ve never met one crazy tennis player. Well. Maybe one or two.”

—professional tennis racket stringer Roman Prokes

www.thebeliever.net/a-microinter...

A Microinterview with Roman Prokes - Believer Magazine

PART I THE BELIEVER: What was it like when you first began working as a pro racket stringer? And how did you meet Andre Agassi? ROMAN PROKES: I was working for Jay Schwartz—it was the two of us—and we...

www.thebeliever.net

January 5, 2026 at 8:45 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Have you read our sports-themed special issue yet? Take a look at what else is inside.

www.thebeliever.net/product/wint...

Winter 2025 - Believer Magazine

www.thebeliever.net

January 5, 2026 at 2:58 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“In a way, life is sports—it’s something you are good at for a while, and then you plateau, and then you get worse.”

—from Elisa Gabbert’s review of Rabbit Run by John Updike

www.thebeliever.net/sportive-rea...

Sportive Reading - Believer Magazine

The Fight by Norman Mailer Sport: Boxing Setting: Kinshasa, Zaire Publisher: Little, Brown Publication year: 1975 Page count: 239 Norman Mailer produced a handful of masterful books, mostly nonficti...

www.thebeliever.net

January 4, 2026 at 10:27 PM