Sports Media is filled with an endless stream of personalities, stories, and gossip, and I'm here to cover it all.

I'm John Arran, Puck's Sports Correspondent, and I've been covering the media business for right around 30 years. I have a new

podcast called The Varsity where I will take you inside the executive suites and

owners boxes that run the entire sports business. Twice a week, I will bring on the smartest people I know

to break down the hottest topics in sports media

and give you a window into the inside conversations

that are happening throughout sports media. the best known personalities in the business, everyone from Payton Manning to Jimmy Battaro.

If you have designs to make the Varsity itself, you need to listen to the Varsity Podcast.

Don't be stuck on the JV Squad this year.

I'll be coming at you every Wednesday and Sunday,

so be sure to follow and listen to the Varsity Podcast,

a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck, wherever you get your podcasts.

The Governor's mansion in Austin, Texas is lovely but unimposing, a Greek revival

island of quiet in the busy capital city. It was there on the back porch in the waning months of the

20th century that George W Bush and his foreign policy advisor Condoleezza Rice

surveyed the global challenges that would confront the next president,

which Governor Bush very much hoped to be.

As Bush recalled, one day our conversation turned to Africa.

Kondi had strong feelings on the subject.

She felt Africa had great potential, but had too often been neglected.

We agreed that Africa would be a serious part of my foreign policy.

Almost four years later in 2003 in his State of the Union address, amid war in in Afghanistan and a coming storm in Iraq.

...