The Socially Distant Sports Bar is a comedy/sports podcast hosted by sports journalist and academic Steff Garrero with comedians Elis James and Mike Bubbins. It was created in response to the lack of live sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. The music for the podcast is played by James Dean Bradfield.
The format was created by Garrero. Each of the presenters picks a short clip, then take turns to pick a feature-length documentary, followed by a second short clip each, ending with one of them choosing a book (originally three books were discussed) all related to sport. They discuss the clips, documentary and book as well as taking various detours to discuss a diverse range of subjects loosely related to the original clips. In March 2021 the second round of clips were made available to Patreon subscribers only and in April 2023 the Non-Patreon version of the podcast was split into two episodes, made available on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Patreon version continues to be released on Tuesdays. The podcast is signed to American podcast giant Wondery and produced by Garrero's Nata Media company.
The podcast was included in The Telegraph's 50 Best Cultural Events of 2020 poll, being praised for its "unreasonably hilarious lockdown laughs".
In January 2021, the podcast won a Pod Bible poll winners award for best podcast in the Sport & Leisure category. It also won Best Comedy Sports Podcast at the inaugural Sports Podcast awards in 2022.
The podcast has been commended for "giving back" to the sporting community in Wales and sponsor a number of sports clubs including Cardiff Met WFC and the academy sides at Carmarthen Town.
In April 2021 it was announced that the podcast would tour the UK in the Autumn of that year, visiting venues including The Hackney Empire, The Lowry in Salford and Cardiff's New Theatre. Following the original tour selling well, (including having multiple shows at Hackney and Cardiff) an extra arena show was added at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena in February 2022. This show was re-arranged for February 2023 due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the positive reception to the podcast the team were given the opportunity by BT Sport to take the format to television. In 2022 they recorded eight episodes of "Down The Clubhouse" using the same format of choosing sport-related video clips and discussing them. The show was filmed on location at the clubhouse of Cowbridge RFC in the Vale of Glamorgan in the spring of 2022 and aired through the summer of 2022.
The Patreon income has allowed for sponsorship of sports teams and other charitable causes. Teams sponsored include Carmarthen Town Academy, Cardiff Blue Dragons rugby league kids, Welsh Under 16 Rugby League Team, Anglesey Netball Team, Cardiff Schools Rugby, Cardiff Met Women's and Men's, and Blackwood Bowls. They also funded cabinets to house defibrillators at local sports clubs.
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During episode 121, Mike inducted a new segment of the show for clips that he keeps meaning to discuss on the podcast but forgets about, this was to be known as "Bubbins Bulls**t" acknowledging that some of the BS that Mike mentions is worth remembering for future episodes. The first of these was Tom Brady throwing The Vince Lombardi Trophy between boats celebrating Tampa Bays win at Super Bowl LV.
In July 2020, in addition to bonus Patreon content on the main podcast a sister podcast, "Michael Owen's Movie Club" was introduced, the hosts watch a fictional sporting themed film and discuss it. As the series developed, the sports themes of the selected movies became less important, instead focusing on films the presenters liked. The title comes from Michael Owen's admission that he has only ever seen 8 films and didn't like them because they aren't real.
Episode 170 of The Socially Distant Sports Bar, named 'Hoffi Pod', used the regular format of the Podcast (2 rounds of 3 clips, a documentary, and a book) only without the restrictions of using Sport-adjacent themes. In September 2023, Hoffi Pod began as a Patron exclusive series, where the presenters usually discuss 3 non-sports clips, occasionally discussing a documentary.
In November 2022, the podcast started to look back through their archive of episodes and selected some favourite stories, anecdotes and funny bits. The first clip was taken from "Episode 39: I Couldn't Bare To Think Of You Eating Cold Beans" recalling Mike's story of buying a camping stove for an optician he had just met.