Ryan Yousefi

Selected Work

Stories Worth
Telling

A selection of journalism, features, and criticism spanning sports, culture, technology, and local news.

Sports

UPROXX

2020

The Athletes Who Disappeared

Fame in professional sports arrives fast and leaves faster. What happens to the players the cameras stop following?

Sports Illustrated

2022

Why the NFL Draft Feels Like the Super Bowl Now

Thirty years ago, the draft was a two-paragraph transaction. Today it's a prime-time spectacle. The story of how a personnel exercise became America's second-biggest football holiday.

Sports Illustrated

2023

The Rise of Sports Betting and the Fans It's Changing

Legalized gambling has transformed how millions of Americans watch sports. Whether that's good for the game depends on who you ask.

Gaming & Technology

Photo Finish LIVE

2024

The Business of Horse Racing in the Digital Age

An inside look at how blockchain technology and fantasy gaming are reshaping one of sport's oldest institutions, and why a new generation of fans is finding their way to the track.

Photo Finish LIVE

2023

Inside the Solana Summer Camp: Web3's Bet on Southeast Asia

From Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, a wave of builders is creating the infrastructure for a decentralized future — and the energy in the room is unlike anything in American tech.

Local News

Miami New Times

2019

The Making of a Miami Institution

Some restaurants survive South Florida's notoriously brutal dining market. A rare few become something more — a fixture, a landmark, a reason to drive across town.

Miami New Times

2021

Nightlife After the Pandemic: What We Lost, What We Found

The clubs came back. The music came back. But something had shifted — in the crowd, in the city, and in what we need from a night out.

Phoenix New Times

2018

Phoenix's Food Scene Has a Secret

The desert city has long lived in the shadow of its coastal counterparts. A new class of chefs and restaurateurs is ready to change the conversation.

Opinion & Commentary

UPROXX

2021

Dispatches from the Edge of the Internet

A tour through the stranger corners of digital culture — the subreddits, Discord servers, and parasocial relationships that define how a generation entertains itself.

Voice Media Group

2019

What Good Writing Owes the Reader

An editor's argument for clarity, honesty, and the radical act of trusting your audience to handle the truth.

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