AFP Podcasts

Two strokes don’t stop Erik Simonsen from finishing the Killington Ultra

Erik Simonsen isn’t one to let obstacles get in his way, so when, toward the end of a recent 31-mile hike through the Vermont wilderness, for something called the Killington Spartan Ultra 50K, it was just a 60-pound sandbag between him and the finish line, OK, that one almost got him.

“Just cruel, yeah, I think that they put it at the end was the cruel part. You know, in the middle, I could have done it fine and gotten through it. But the very last thing is just this huge sandbag carry, and it’s, oh, why is it here?” said Simonsen, a 33-year-old Waynesboro High School alum, who got past the sandbag carry to finish the Sept. 13 Killington Ultra in 12:26:12.

Biggest losers in the Jimmy Kimmel drama | Disney, ABC, ESPN, Hulu, Marvel, Trump?

Jimmy Kimmel has doubts about the official story from the MAGA prosecutor handling the Charlie Kirk murder. So does Steve Bannon, among many others, but Bannon is also a MAGA, and a bit of a crank, so he’s safe.

The Trump administration used a leverage point over a company seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger to force Kimmel off the air “indefinitely” – not so much about what Kimmel said about the Kirk murder investigation in the opening monologue of his late-night ABC talk show on Monday, but rather, that Kimmel is a frequent and high-profile critic of Donald Trump.

UVA Football | What do we know about this team three weeks into the 2025 season?

If the 2025 UVA Football season was one long game, we’re in the break between the first and second quarters.

What we’ve seen so far:

• ‘Hoos 55, W&M 16 | UVA Football takes care of business in Cupcake Bowl
• UVA Football | Red zone issues, what else is new, doom ‘Hoos in 35-31 loss at NC State
• UVA 48, Coastal 7 | What do we know about this UVA Football team? Not a lot, not yet

Good a time as any to ask: what do we know about this team, three games in?

Whit Babcock makes his case | Is it time for Virginia Tech to move on?

Whit Babcock isn’t pleading poverty because he thinks he can get Virginia Tech donors to open up their checkbooks.

He knows that Tech Athletics has pretty much tapped out what it can get from its money people.

There isn’t another $50 million or $60 million a year just sitting out there waiting to be tapped.

What Babcock is doing is, he’s daring the Virginia Tech administration to fire him.

Be careful what you wish for there.

Podcast | JGR makes it 3-for-3 in the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs

Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in Bristol Saturday night, giving Joe Gibbs Racing its third win in three starts in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The win puts Bell in the 12-team second round, which begins on Sunday in New Hampshire at the USA Today 301.

Rod Mullins was at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, and breaks down the win for Bell, the issues with the tires that caused “uncontrolled chaos” at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”

Charlie Kirk murder update | The truth comes out: The shooter is a MAGA

Donald Trump, on Thursday, speaking about the murder of MAGA provocateur Charlie Kirk, blamed the shooting on “radical-left lunatics,” and added, ominously, “we have to beat the hell out of them.”

Not surprisingly, on Friday, we’re learning that the suspect in custody in connection with the shooting is a 22-year-old MAGA.

Nothing from Trump, to this point, retracting the call to his supporters to “beat the hell” out of innocent people on the left, who had nothing to do with the murder of Charlie Kirk, which was an inside job.

You’re not surprised to learn any of this, no doubt.

AFP is 'fringe' | Virginia Democrats don't have time for us

People who read AFP for our sports coverage know that I got the label “fringe media” from a mainstream sportswriter last year, and decided to adopt what was meant as an insult as a badge of honor, because that’s how you disarm people who want to diminish you – by making their attempts at insults into a big joke, to point out the absurdity.

What I’m going to do here today is tell you, it’s not just the dwindling numbers in what is left of the sports media profession who treat us as fringy outsiders.

UVA Football podcast | Reviewing the Week 2 loss at NC State

UVA Football faces William & Mary, an FCS school, in Week 3, so, not as much need to get folks ready.

This allows us to take the mid-week to review the disappointing 35-31 loss at NC State in Week 2.

It was disappointing because, in a lot of ways, the ‘Hoos did everything but win that game.

Today’s postmortem grades the offense, defense and special teams.

Preview of the Bristol night race, playoff eliminator

NASCAR Podcast | Preview of the Bristol night race, playoff eliminator

Denny Hamlin punched the second ticket to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 with his win in Illinois.

Who will join Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in the Round of 12?

Rod Mullins will be representing AFP at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s night race, the eliminator for the Round of 12.

On the podcast, we go through the drivers on both sides of the cutoff who have work to do to get to the next round.

Getting to know Jena Crisler | Democrat in the 35th

I don’t live in the 35th House District anymore, but the wide-expanse district – which stretches from Bath County, into Highland County, through the western half of Augusta County, to the northeast into a corner of Rockingham County – is still where I spent the bulk of my life.

The district covers 1,963.7 square miles – an area bigger than the state of Rhode Island (1,545 square miles), and not far behind Delaware (2,489 square miles).

There are no cities in the 35th; there are a lot of wide-open spaces and beautiful vistas.

And a lot of good, hard-working folks who have been abandoned by both political parties.

The 35th voted 70.5 percent for Donald Trump and 73.0 percent for Ben Cline in the 2024 cycle, only to see the MAGAs approve what they called a Big, Beautiful Bill that cut healthcare to the point that one of our two regional hospitals, Augusta Health, has had to close down two primary-care centers serving the outer reaches in the 35th.

Hospitals cutting services are just one impact of the trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that are on the horizon.

“Please understand that Medicaid funds the Affordable Care Act subsidies that many of our neighbors rely on for health coverage. That includes cancer screenings, mental health services, addiction treatment, and doctor visits for chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease,” said Jena Crisler, a medical doctor who lives in Port Republic, in the southeast corner of Rockingham County, and is the Democratic Party nominee in the 35th.