Uningrained

The thing about blind spots is we don’t notice them. They’re so familiar—so ingrained—that it’s hard to imagine life any other way. Uningrained is a deep-dive, narrative podcast that pulls those invisible ideas out of the woodwork and asks whether it’s worth making a change.

Coming this spring

Season One of Uningrained

Uningrained launches in April with a first season that looks at whether it makes sense to treat softball as baseball for girls. Available on your favorite podcast platform with bonus content on Substack.

S1 Trailer

Subscribe to Uningrained on your favorite podcast player and on Substack

Should Softball be Baseball for Girls?

An Introduction

Competitive youth sports used to be practically off-limits for girls, but now opportunities are everywhere. A record 3.5 million girls played high-school sports last year. Track, volleyball and basketball led the way, and even wrestling and flag football each had more than 65,000 girls participate.

Yet something’s missing from this renaissance: Baseball. The National Pastime. The Great American Game.

How can baseball continue to leave girls in the grandstands? The answer, of course, is softball. But … why do we steer boys toward baseball and girls to softball? Does the separation make sense? If not, is it worth fixing?

That’s the focus of the first season of Uningrained. It’s a narrative, documentary-style podcast that traces the rich and surprising histories of both women’s baseball and fastpitch softball, and features interviews with dozens of top players from across eras.

Episode 0

Season Preview

When a girl mentions that she plays baseball, she braces for the most common response: “You mean softball?” It’s less a question than a correction. Season One of Uningrained will look at whether it makes sense to blur the lines between these two sports.

Meet the Team

Uningrained zags where modern journalism zigs. Instead of clickbait and hot takes, this show is about obsessing over every aspect of a story, from research and reporting to storytelling and production. The first season is proving that the process pays off.

I’m grateful for your support here at the beginning, and excited to have you along. We’re going to have fun, you’ll learn stuff, and I believe you’ll be inspired.

Steve Hendershot

Founder/Host

More about Steve

Bestselling Author

Nintendo Life called Steve’s bestselling book Undisputed Street Fighter one of the top gaming books of all time.

Award-Winning Reporter

Steve’s received dozens of journalism awards in Chicago and nationally for his reporting on business, public policy and social issues.

Veteran Podcaster

Steve is the longtime host of the Project Management Institute’s “Projectified” podcast, with three million downloads and many industry awards.

Rachel Gansner

For this season, Steve is joined by cohost Rachel Gansner, founder of an all-girls Little League baseball program in Chicago and the nonprofit Let’s Play Too.

Nathan McDonald

Nathan McDonald is a business strategist, designer and brand-building expert based in Rockford, Illinois, where he runs Paxcurio Studio.

What’s on Uningrained’s Substack?

A bunch of awesome extras, including:

Extended interviews with all-star guests

Each episode of Uningrained tells a story, often supported by comments from people at the center of the topic we’re covering. What happens to the rest of those interviews? More expansive, long-form versions live on Substack.

Turn blind spots into bonanzas

Uningrained is a show about recognizing and addressing blind spots, invisible ideas and hidden assumptions. On Substack we get practical, as Uningrained guests and our team share their own blind-spot experiences, strategies and takeaways.

Go beyond the episode

If you liked a particular episode and want to go deeper, Substack is the place. Head there for behind-the-scenes extras, research notes and opportunities to interact with the Uningrained team and its guests.

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