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The Believer
@thebeliever.net
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A quarterly literature, arts, and culture magazine.
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The Believer @thebeliever.net · 14d
Our first-ever Sports Issue kicks off today! Check this thread for the play-by-play on what to expect.

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Winter 2025 - Believer Magazine
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“A goal is a magical concoction of aim and force and luck. Like a life.”

—from “Bola Cheia,” an essay by Chris Feliciano Arnold

www.thebeliever.net/bola-cheia/
Bola Cheia - Believer Magazine
Opened in 2020, the COPA Soccer Training Center in Walnut Creek, California, is a 117,000-square-foot, three-story-high labyrinth of sensor-­enabled practice spaces where boys and girls ages one throu...
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December 31, 2025 at 5:37 PM
thebeliever.net
“Snowfall has never been regular, and it’s becoming less dependable every year. If you want a perfect winter, you have to make one.”

—from “How to Snow a Mountain,” by @elvia-wilk.bsky.social

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How To Snow a Mountain - Believer Magazine
The first time I tried to ski was a catastrophe. I’ve always been unathletic and clumsy, the kind of person who hates being cold, hates waking up early, hates going fast, hates excessive gear, and gen...
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December 31, 2025 at 2:08 AM
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“Indian Horse embodies the core paradox of sports: They have the ability to free us from daily concerns, but also reflect the unjust societies that have forged them.”

—E. Y. Zhao on Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

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Sportive Reading - Believer Magazine
The Fight by Norman Mailer Sport: Boxing Setting: Kinshasa, Zaire Publisher: Little, Brown  Publication year: 1975 Page count: 239  Norman Mailer produced a handful of masterful books, mostly nonficti...
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December 30, 2025 at 7:00 PM
thebeliever.net
“I look at reading season and writing season in the same way I would look at preseason, postseason, and season.”

—Marcus Burke, interviewed by @jennitaur.bsky.social

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No One Gave It to You - Believer Magazine
During my senior year of high school, a guidance counselor who had it in for me gleefully noticed I was missing a semester’s worth of PE. I still have the paper on the Cupertino High School letterhead...
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December 29, 2025 at 12:57 PM
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“Football is pretty much a perfect sport.”

— @minakimes.bsky.social, interviewed by Sarah Enni

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
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December 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
thebeliever.net
“COPA is the most American way possible to train your kid to play soccer.”

—Chris Feliciano Arnold on an elite soccer training facility

www.thebeliever.net/bola-cheia/
Bola Cheia - Believer Magazine
Opened in 2020, the COPA Soccer Training Center in Walnut Creek, California, is a 117,000-square-foot, three-story-high labyrinth of sensor-­enabled practice spaces where boys and girls ages one throu...
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December 27, 2025 at 1:29 AM
thebeliever.net
“I am thankful for Steph Curry’s art practice. I am even more thankful for friends who can be moved by the sensual, serious work of witnessing the worst shot taken in the history of basketball.”

—from “The Worst Shot Ever Taken” by Kiese Laymon

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The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine
I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my Au...
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December 26, 2025 at 5:34 PM
thebeliever.net
Need a last minute gift? Believer subscriptions are marked down and at your service!

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Gift Subscriptions - The McSweeney’s Store
The McSweeney's Store
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December 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
thebeliever.net
“The sublime is manufactured, which, to me, makes it even more sublime. I’m fascinated by just how unnatural that pristine nature is.”

—from “How to Snow a Mountain,” by @elvia-wilk.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/how-to-snow-...
How To Snow a Mountain - Believer Magazine
The first time I tried to ski was a catastrophe. I’ve always been unathletic and clumsy, the kind of person who hates being cold, hates waking up early, hates going fast, hates excessive gear, and gen...
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December 24, 2025 at 4:44 PM
thebeliever.net
“Commodity traders sometimes ship metals and fuels across oceans to exploit price differences between markets. The same thing is happening with soccer players.”

—from “Ferryman of Dreams” by Paul Collins and Andrew Nelson

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Ferryman of Dreams - Believer Magazine
1. “Kid, that’s not how things work here. And where are you from? What’s your nationality? How old are you?” The words jolted sixteen-year-old Amane Dramera into a state of confusion so that everythin...
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December 23, 2025 at 7:54 PM
thebeliever.net
“Learning to progress through something that involves observation and skill, while acknowledging luck, is key to this mysterious enterprise.”

—Thomas McGuane on fishing; interviewed by Mattie Govan

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Thomas McGuane - Believer Magazine
It will come as no surprise to longtime readers of Thomas McGuane’s work that while I was speaking with him, I was moved by his kindness, his incisive insight, and, above all, his mischievous sense of...
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December 23, 2025 at 5:33 PM
thebeliever.net
“Ultimate is the only sport whose name is an adjective, and it is a child’s game I’ve been playing competitively for the last several decades of my life.”

—from Will McGrath’s latest Department essay

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Event: The USA Ultimate Masters Championships - Believer Magazine
FEATURES: Middle-aged athletes Scoobers Coke Slurpees The unknowable future In July of 2025, I flew out to Aurora, Colorado, with my wife and some friends to see if we were still the best forty-someth...
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December 22, 2025 at 5:38 PM
thebeliever.net
“What I think of as my mind is but one kind of subroutine in a much greater symphony of things that are going on cognitively, metabolically, and, man, I feel like running makes that so clear.”

—Alexis Madrigal, interviewed by @jennitaur.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/no-one-gave-...
No One Gave It to You - Believer Magazine
During my senior year of high school, a guidance counselor who had it in for me gleefully noticed I was missing a semester’s worth of PE. I still have the paper on the Cupertino High School letterhead...
www.thebeliever.net
December 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM
thebeliever.net
“My dad always wanted me to be the worst on every team, because that was my way of knowing I had to get better”

—Natalie Nakase, interviewed by Alan Chazaro

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A Short Interview with WNBA Coach Natalie Nakase - Believer Magazine
Natalie Nakase has led a life of basketball firsts. She became the first woman basketball player to have her jersey retired by her alma mater, Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. She w...
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December 21, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by The Believer
thetattooedprof.bsky.social
Really enoyed reading this @thebeliever.net interview with @minakimes.bsky.social, one of the smartest voices (and best senses of humor) in sports today.
An Interview with Mina Kimes - Believer Magazine
For most of my life, I was a die-hard sports fan who considered SportsCenter as much a part of a balanced breakfast as a bowl of Wheaties. But then I turned thirty, got divorced, moved to a new city, ...
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December 20, 2025 at 5:07 PM
thebeliever.net
“Live in the moment where disbelief hasn’t yet turned to praise, then let it fly.”

—from “The Worst Shot Ever Taken” by Kiese Laymon

www.thebeliever.net/the-worst-sh...
The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine
I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my Au...
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December 20, 2025 at 4:58 PM
thebeliever.net
“The legacy of empire is a constant presence on the cricket pitch.”

—from “An Avoidable Incident,” an essay by Chris Almeida

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An Avoidable Incident - Believer Magazine
It was on the third day of a rowdy but otherwise unremarkable 2001 match in South Africa that the Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar—perhaps the most famous person in his country—began bowling. Quickly...
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December 19, 2025 at 10:26 PM
thebeliever.net
“Sports fandom seizes upon our religious instincts, and demands a cocktail of faith and devotion.”

—from @bealoayza.bsky.social’s Resurrector column on Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday

www.thebeliever.net/resurrector-...
Resurrector: Any Given Sunday - Believer Magazine
Sports fandom seizes upon our religious instincts, and demands a cocktail of faith and devotion. The typical Hollywood football movie—think Remember the Titans (2000) or Rudy (1993)—tends to bring out...
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December 19, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by The Believer
chris-arnold.bsky.social
I enrolled my son in a state of the art soccer training center for all the wrong reasons. You can read about it in the new Sports Issue of @thebeliever.net. www.thebeliever.net/bola-cheia/
Bola Cheia - Believer Magazine
Opened in 2020, the COPA Soccer Training Center in Walnut Creek, California, is a 117,000-square-foot, three-story-high labyrinth of sensor-­enabled practice spaces where boys and girls ages one throu...
www.thebeliever.net
December 19, 2025 at 5:57 PM
thebeliever.net
“My friend summed it up: ‘The worst people catch the best fish.’”

—Thomas McGuane, interviewed by Mattie C. Govan

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Thomas McGuane - Believer Magazine
It will come as no surprise to longtime readers of Thomas McGuane’s work that while I was speaking with him, I was moved by his kindness, his incisive insight, and, above all, his mischievous sense of...
www.thebeliever.net
December 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
thebeliever.net
“People are just much more capable of bridging differences when they’re both wearing Bears hats at a bar.”

— @minakimes.bsky.social, interviewed by @sarahenni.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Mina Kimes - Believer Magazine
For most of my life, I was a die-hard sports fan who considered SportsCenter as much a part of a balanced breakfast as a bowl of Wheaties. But then I turned thirty, got divorced, moved to a new city, ...
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December 19, 2025 at 12:24 AM
thebeliever.net
“Steph Curry’s Olympic shot… is undeniably the worst shot I have ever seen taken. It just happened to be taken by... one of the greatest artists in the history of earth.”

—from “The Worst Shot Ever Taken” by Kiese Laymon

www.thebeliever.net/the-worst-sh...
The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine
I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my Au...
www.thebeliever.net
December 18, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by The Believer
minakimes.bsky.social
Enjoyed being interviewed by @sarahenni.bsky.social for @thebeliever.net about a wide variety of things, including my odd little career path, sports television, the NFL, etc

Check it out here

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Mina Kimes - Believer Magazine
For most of my life, I was a die-hard sports fan who considered SportsCenter as much a part of a balanced breakfast as a bowl of Wheaties. But then I turned thirty, got divorced, moved to a new city, ...
www.thebeliever.net
December 18, 2025 at 5:33 PM
thebeliever.net
Our first-ever Sports Issue kicks off today! Check this thread for the play-by-play on what to expect.

www.thebeliever.net/product/wint...
Winter 2025 - Believer Magazine
www.thebeliever.net
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
thebeliever.net
“…a man
Has knocked on my windshield,
Assuming I’m stuck and asks
To enter my car. He starts it
As if he freed the key
And looks at me
And says I’m a car thief.”

—from “Computer Assembly Plant,” a poem by Prince Bush

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Computer Assembly Plant - Believer Magazine
After Betsy Every night a drove of us leaves Our work building And clot the lot’s exit upTill emptied and distant, No different when I’m stuckWith my key in the ignition, Not yielding in spiteOf my tu...
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December 16, 2025 at 11:48 PM