On Fandom and Community

Community springs up in so many places. Neighborhoods, schools, churches. When one of our children was still “sitting-in-the-grocery-cart” size, my wife once formed a friendship with another mom of a little at the grocery store.

Affinity groups and sports are nothing new, but in recent decades we do have community popping up around shared interest in musicians, actors, influencers and more. Entire subreddits dedicated to a musician are nothing new.

So it’s interesting that in my 40s I find myself still connected with a curmudgeonly old man, ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser. From newspaper sports columnist, to style section writer, to radio and TV, “Mr. Tony” has been around for quite a while, still podcasting three to four days a week well into his 70s (Kornheiser is 77) and still a staple on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. What I didn’t count on was connecting with other fans over the years.

In the early oughts, there was a message board online, maintained by a fan. Today a couple of Facebook groups and a subreddit exist. The “connective tissue,” as Kornheiser describes it, is the wide variety of people who keep listening to TK wax on about sports, but also his personal life and his terrible experiences at the pharmacy.

A couple of weeks ago I had the fun experience of being a guest on what you might call a “spin-off” podcast hosted by two very special fans Chuck and Roxy whose own nuptials bear a Kornheiser connection. It’s called the Loyal Littles podcast. Kornheiser jokingly and honestly self deprecatingly referred to the listeners as littles for years. He’d say so with a surprise in his voice as if “why do all these people keep listening to me!?” The listeners embraced the term.

There’s got to be a commonality, a shared set of values or perspectives, between people who regularly listen to an artist, author, or radio personality. If you’ve been listening to the same radio show/podcast for 25 years, it’s amazing the inside jokes and references you can share with a total stranger. It creates a dynamic where you feel like old friends. Trust is given easily.

These “fandom” spaces could, I guess, be negative. But Kornheiser fandom is not. It’s witty and kind people with a shared interest in the absurd. It’s smart and it’s funny. It’s certainly generous. And only a bit curmudgeon.

You can listen to the episode I was on here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/41XIZ184jU3uRkUJDLp1KH?si=y50SGlSBQie4rlEwPt5p5Q https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12EHWLTJ1EUPI?ref_=wl_share&fbclid=IwdGRjcAMO-UJjbGNrAw75NWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEefJ7CEK1_sRJlwvlb0cqf6JJjW9FOTERalhWX1a7t-s1N8hFkVDlorCVCOuw_ae

If you’re so inclined, you can send me stuff for my classroom here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12EHWLTJ1EUPI?ref_=wl_share&fbclid=IwdGRjcAMO-UJjbGNrAw75NWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEefJ7CEK1_sRJlwvlb0cqf6JJjW9FOTERalhWX1a7t-s1N8hFkVDlorCVCOuw_ae

PS you can read about the time I met Tony here: https://timteach.com/2022/03/30/that-time-i-met-tony-kornheiser/