# Arena: Wright Thompson on McGregor backlash, being there and the future of sports writing Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423/arena-wright-thompson-on-mcgregor-backlash-being-there-and-the-future-of-sports-writing Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423/arena-wright-thompson-on-mcgregor-backlash-being-there-and-the-future-of-sports-writing.md Podcast: [Arena with Maurice Brosnan](https://stenobird.com/podcast/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423) Published: 2026-08-19T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-arena-podcast-with-maurice-brosnan/episodes/6a8475953c90594060be74a3 Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69b2f7a991324664df7ca1ab/e/6a8475953c90594060be74a3/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423/episodes/arena-wright-thompson-on-mcgregor-backlash-being-there-and-the-future-of-sports-writing Duration seconds: 3139 ## Resource On this week's episode of Arena, the weekly podcast from the Irish Examiner , Maurice Brosnan is joined by award-winning ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson.   The lads discuss the uncertain state of sports journalism, why it is important to separate the business behind the industry from the craft itself and what great sports writing can still offer in a rapidly changing media landscape.   Wright recalls the extraordinary reaction to his infamous 2017 profile of Conor McGregor, explains why being there still matters and discusses how long a profile really takes.   To get in touch with Maurice, email Maurice.brosnan@examiner.ie .   You can read Wright’s Steve Kerr profile here: The Warrior Still Remains   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423/episodes/arena-wright-thompson-on-mcgregor-backlash-being-there-and-the-future-of-sports-writing/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/arena-with-maurice-brosnan-7783423/arena-wright-thompson-on-mcgregor-backlash-being-there-and-the-future-of-sports-writing.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.