(re)Pebbling: Dr. Rich Norman on Blackness and Curling

Sports Politika September 21, 2026 Watch on Sports Politika →

On Monday, I had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Richard Norman, a strategist, researcher, and futurist working at the borderlands of sport and society, about his new book (re)Pebbling: A Story of Blackness and Curling.

I first met Dr. Norman at last year’s Play the Game conference in Tampere, Finland, where he lifted the veil on the world of curling and the socio-economic and racial politics embedded in this quintessentially Canadian pastime. As someone who is rarely blindsided with a subject matter in the world of sports that I knew this little about, it was like delving into an entirely new world. Since then, his book has been one of my most anticipated reads of the year and, when I finally got my hands on an advance copy, it did not disappoint.