John Affleck
Episode 396
7 SEP 2026
He is a lifelong runner, having competed in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in high school, earning six MVP awards, and later going on to six marathons, including a top 500 finish at the Boston Marathon. Other highlights include Masters All-American in middle distance events in track and field in his 40s, 50s and 60s as well as being faculty partner to track and field at Penn State for seven years. Between the Associated Press and Penn State, he has reported or edited on sports from every continent except Antarctica: six Super Bowls; five national (college) football title games; two Olympics; two Paralympics; two World Cups; the 2023 Women’s World Cup; Final Four; and Little League World Series.
Notable guest quotes:
“One of the things that, … is quite profound when your job is looking at news from religion for a global news agency as I was at the Associated Press, one thing you see very quickly is (that) people of all walks of life all over the planet have a desire to experience divinity, and they look for God’s presence in their lives.”
“I went to Easter Mass… And the pastor gave this moving sermon… that part of the anguish that we felt was our connection to the church. And that really grabbed me.”
“And I just said, if there was ever a time that a Catholic should be going to Mass and trying to just be part of the community and express their faith, now is a good time.”
“I once had a priest say to me, the reason people come back to the church is usually a reason that they’re embarrassed by or has something to do with a tough moment rather than a happy moment.”
“My wife and I found out that we were going to be unable to have children. And that was profoundly painful to us. And… I was thinking to myself, how in the world am I going to get through this?”
“I had gone to see a priest for counseling and to share my anguish and he said, ‘I don’t know why this happened to you, but I know that God’s with you in your suffering’.”
“In running … you can’t win without a great deal of work and effort and some discomfort going in. And you have to embrace it and feel joy in it.”
“A friend of mine convinced me to do a few sprint triathlons together… when we got to the line that day, he said, ‘Doing the triathlon is the celebration of training for the triathlon.’ And that’s really true. Like, racing is the moment that you got to celebrate all the great things you did in training… the sort of fidelity you need to the sport is not unlike any practice that you’re doing in other areas, including your faith.”
“If we just had a little bit of confidence, if we walked around being like, ‘You know what? I know that there is a loving God out there and that as bad as things can go, we’ll make it through this. We’ll be okay. It will be a lot better’.”
“I’d gone to Catholic high school and Catholic elementary school and so getting accepted to Notre Dame really meant a lot.”
“I’ve often been in interview situations where athletes credited God for their ability.”
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