The After the Arch gang is BACK after a brief (school-related) hiatus. First, we discuss the tragic Cats loss to Michigan State that probably disqualifies them from College Football Playoff contention. Then, we invite former NFL first-round pick and Illinois State Senator Napoleon Harris III to the podcast. One of the most interesting people we’ve ever spoken to, Napoleon tells us about his recruiting trip to stay with then-player Pat Fitzgerald (07:24), what it was like to play collegiate basketball and football at the same time (10:45), meeting Leonardo DiCaprio in the Playboy mansion (20:14) and what it was like to play alongside future NFL Hall of Famers (30:40). He also discusses the time he singlehandedly fought off four(!) robbers (41:20), how athletes can best use their political platform (35:36) and what some of the intersections are between sports and politics (51:17). Hope you all enjoy.
 

Napoleon’s charity of choice is Chicago’s House of James foundation that supports AIDS, mental health and helps prevent recidivism.

We're back after a short break and are very excited to share our interview with Darren Rovell, who some of you may know from either ESPN or the Action Network and many will know from Twitter. Darren discusses how he went from a Northwestern graduate to anchor on SportsCenter in a matter of weeks (6:35), receiving hundreds of promotional packages a month from different companies (26:00) and the coolest piece of memorabilia he owns (29:24). On the topic of social media, Darren tells us about how he used Instagram and Twitter to build his brand (41:52) and shares his screen time on various apps (44:16). Huge thank you to Darren Rovell for joining us on the pod (after weeks of pleading by us)!

Darren's charity of choice was SameHere's We're All a Little "Crazy," which you can find more information about here - https://samehereglobal.org. 

In a special introduction, we invite our good friend and self-proclaimed (but yet to be verified) "Northwestern Basketball Expert," Derek Krantz, on the pod to talk about Pat Baldwin Jr. and some recent recruiting news. After that, we bring on Charlie Hall, former Northwestern basketball player and current actor. Charlie tells us about his web-series "Sorry, Charlie" (08:20), working alongside his mom in an episode of Veep (12:47), the time he scored his singular career point for the Cats (32:07) and what it's like to be a young actor working in productions for Hulu and Netflix (39:26). We had an awesome time with Charlie and hope you all enjoy!

Charlie's choice of charity was Black Lives Matter, which you can find more information about here - www.blacklivesmatter.com