FALSE IDOL Part 1: The Blade Runner

FALSE IDOL Part 1: The Blade Runner

Author: Religion of Sports | PRX August 26, 2021 Duration: 43:53
In the early 2000s, the Paralympics were headlined by star sprinters Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure, when suddenly a new challenger emerged –– a teenager from South Africa named Oscar Pistorius. He immediately began dominating the sport, winning medals, setting records, and signing endorsement deals. But Shirley and Frasure had questions about how this newcomer was winning all these races.       

From the team at Religion of Sports and PRX, ROS Presents: Counterattack is a season-long audio documentary that digs into a pivotal, personal story within the wider world of sports. This season focuses on the life of professional soccer player Sinead Farrelly, tracing her path from a celebrated young talent to a central figure in a movement that changed the game. The podcast chronicles her complex journey, detailing her rise as a hometown star, the difficult decision to become a whistleblower regarding conditions in her league, and her subsequent path toward an unlikely return to the field. It’s a narrative about resilience and the personal cost of speaking truth to power, set against the backdrop of a revolution in professional women’s soccer. Through intimate storytelling and layered sound design, this series explores how individual courage can collide with systemic issues, creating ripples that transform an entire sport. Listeners will hear a nuanced portrait of an athlete’s struggle and triumph, framed within the larger societal conversations about accountability, justice, and the true meaning of a comeback. This is ambitious audio journalism that treats sports as the deeply human endeavor it is, offering more than just game highlights-it provides a front-row seat to a story that reshaped a league.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 37

ROS Presents: Counterattack
Podcast Episodes
FALSE IDOL Part 6: Swart Gevaar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:04
During his murder trial, Pistorius claimed he’d mistaken Reeva for an intruder, when he shot her in his home. He listed instances where he’d been the victim of crime. But for many South Africans, there was a coded messag…
FALSE IDOL Part 5: Ready to Run? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:24
Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder, and prosecutors Gerrie Nel and Andrea Johnson took the case. Nel and Johnson reviewed the crime scene, the evidence, the witness testimony, and were of the opinion that Pis…
FALSE IDOL Part 4: Reeva [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:32
In this episode, we remember the life of Reeva Steenkamp. She was an activist, a mentor, an aspiring lawyer, and a model whose career was about to take off. Her future was looking bright, when she met Pistorius in the Fa…
FALSE IDOL Part 3: A Loaded Gun [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:46
As Pistorius rose to fame, the media began learning more about him, and some of the details seemed … troubling. He drove at excessive speeds. He had an obsession with guns. He crashed a boat into a jetty. And the details…
FALSE IDOL Part 2: Oscarmania [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:07
Pistorius was so dominant, he set his sights on a new goal: running against able-bodied athletes at the Olympic Games. Now he faced more questions, more scrutiny. Scientists wondered if the races would be fair, and Pisto…
FALSE IDOL: Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:40
False Idol re-examines the rise and fall of Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic sprinter who murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Journalist Tim Rohan traces Pistorius’ path to infamy, deconstructs his heroic image, and…
Introducing False Idol [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:29
Joan Niesen talks with Tim Rohan, host of False Idol, the latest narrative podcast from Religion of Sports and PRX. The new series re-examines the story of Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic sprinter who killed his girlfrie…
CRUSHED Bonus: The Sticky Solution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:48
More than 100 years after banning pitchers from using foreign substances on balls, MLB is finally enforcing that rule in an effort to resurrect lagging offense. But is the league cracking down on the right culprit? In th…
CRUSHED Part 7: The Fallout [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:33
Baseball still feels the aftershocks of the steroid era. Has it recovered, or has it just forgotten and moved on? And what happens when a sport that's built on nostalgia ignores its own history?
CRUSHED Part 6: The Reckoning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:40
In 2005, Congress forced star athletes and baseball leadership to finally confront their steroid problem on national television and answer questions on Capitol Hill. There were a lot of things the government got right th…