Welcome to episode No. 41 of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch. In this podcast, which is published weekly, Deitsch interviews members of the sports media about their work and interesting people about the sports media. This week’s podcast guest is Turner Sports host Ernie Johnson, who hosts Inside the NBA as well as NBA Fan Night on NBA TV.

TNT will present live coverage of NBA All-Star 2016 events from Toronto, Feb. 11-14, including more than 26 hours of All-Star programming.

In this episode, Johnson discusses navigating a studio show that is mostly ad-libbed, his views on race, how they developed and the racial dynamics on the set of Inside the NBA, when he knew Charles Barkley would be good on television, how he prepares for hosting Inside the NBA, why Kevin Garnett would be a great studio host as long as he avoided f-bombs, what he learned from his father Ernie Jr, a longtime MLB broadcaster, his surviving Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and much more.

A reminder: you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher, and you can view all of SI's podcasts here. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please comment here or tweet at Deitsch.