About this podcast
Fighting fascism and the far-right in combat sports like MMA and BJJ.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 98 episodes
- We're begging you, PLEASE VOTE 🇺🇸 · 28 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey make a get-out-the-vote plea ahead of the November 3 midterms. They talk about Michigan's Senate race between…
- The USA is trying to own Alberta · 35 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting make a public service announcement ahead of Alberta's October 19 referendum on whether to start the process of…
- One Distraction After Another · 1 h 0 minOn this episode of the Fighting Matters Podcast, Stephan Kesting, Jesse Walker, Jeff Shaw, and Steve Kwan examine how the recent insane actions of Donald Trump represent the…
- The Acceleration of Martial Arts Fascism · 54 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Mike Mahaffey connect a month of far-right imagery in combat sports: Nazi salutes and a swastika flag at a kickboxing event in…
- Canada Fuels American Growth · 59 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting talk through the Canada-US trade war from the Canadian side of the border. They explain why this was never…
- Tariffs and Jiu-Jitsu Economics · 1 h 15 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw and Jesse Walker are joined by Jose Fernandez, a health economist and purple belt who chairs the economics department at the…
- We Gotta Talk About These UFC BJJ Sponsors · 58 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting pull up a screenshot of the UFC BJJ 10 mat and read the sponsors out loud: the Air National Guard, the AI…
- How COVID Broke the Martial Arts Community · 1 h 10 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Jesse Walker and Stephan Kesting (just back from thirty days in the Arctic wilderness) are joined by Dr. Clayton Green, a board certified…
- Andrew Tate and the zero-consequences era · 1 h 3 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey catch up on a run of recent news where powerful people did awful things and faced no real consequences: Andrew…
- The Graham Platner Problem · 1 h 3 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ to talk about Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate whose campaign has come…
- The 250th, ADCC, and Izaak Michell · 58 minIn this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ and Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ on the eve of America's 250th Fourth…
- The Conor McGregor comeback is gross · 57 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, co-hosts Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey take on Conor McGregor's UFC comeback and the media tour selling it: a man found civilly liable for…
- An honest UFC Freedom 250 critique · 1 h 7 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ to talk about the fallout from UFC Freedom 250, the fight card staged on the White…
- The UFC Freedom 250 debacle · 52 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw is joined by Jesse Walker, Mike Mahaffey, and Stephan Kesting to take apart UFC Freedom 250, the card being staged on the White…
- Anti-Trans Hate Is a UFC Marketing Strategy · 1 h 0 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan talks with Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ about the trans hate pouring out of combat sports, and the fighters who have figured…
- Why did UFC BJJ let Mikey compete with a staph infection? · 1 h 1 minIn this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jeff Shaw of Bellingham BJJ, Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ, and Dr. Clayton Green, a board-certified…
- How Jiu-Jitsu Survives the AI Era · 1 h 34 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined again by Dr. David Riedman: 17-year jiu-jitsu practitioner, MIT-trained data analyst, and PhD researcher whose…
- A Man Broke Into My Apartment at 4 AM (feat. Andrea Tang) · 60 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Andrea Tang: novelist, brown belt at District Martial Arts, and host of BJJ Today on the BJJ Mental Models Premium…
- How YOU Can Clean Up Jiu-Jitsu · 1 h 3 minAfter yet another sexual abuse case in the BJJ community, the Fighting Matters crew works through a question every grappler eventually has to answer: "What can I, as just a…
- Why BJJ Camps Need Less Jiu-Jitsu · 1 h 2 minIn this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker (Rough Hands BJJ), Mike Mahaffey (Old Bastard BJJ), and Niamh Bryn (Snowblind BJJ) for a recap of the…
