Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey fam Today on the bright Side, we're
Speaker 1: talking women's basketball with content creator and former ESPN and
Speaker 1: NBA producer Hannah O'Flynn.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad to be alive during this time in
Speaker 2: women's sports history. We're gonna be telling our future kids
Speaker 2: about this. Be like back in Monday, tickets were just thirty.
Speaker 3: Bucks, just thirty bucks.
Speaker 4: Well, we're getting into why this year's NCAA Tournament is
Speaker 4: a historic moment in women's sports, and we're all getting
Speaker 4: up to speed ahead of tonight's final four matchups.
Speaker 3: It's Friday, April fifth.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe, I'm Simone Voice, and this is the
Speaker 1: bright side from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 3: Danielle, how we feel and it's Friday.
Speaker 4: Oh see money, it is Friday. I have to tell you,
Speaker 4: I am so glad it's Friday. Why For the past
Speaker 4: four or five years, I have been making my own
Speaker 4: schedule and is a boss. I felt like a boss
Speaker 4: and now I have bosses and it's the first time
Speaker 4: that I have this kind of schedule where I'm coming
Speaker 4: into an office in a recording studio five days a week,
Speaker 4: and now I know what people feel like like. I
Speaker 4: am excited for the weekend. No shade to the producers.
Speaker 3: She's already sick of me, you guys, that's what she's
Speaker 3: trying to say. No, we talk every single night now.
Speaker 3: It's honestly gross. We're producing our own phone calls.
Speaker 4: Yea.
Speaker 1: So this weekend, I'm actually going to Buffalo, New York
Speaker 1: to get ready to see the total eclipse of the sun.
Speaker 3: You've been talking about this since I met you.
Speaker 1: I know you want to know why. God bless my father,
Speaker 1: God bless Charles. He has been planning this trip for
Speaker 1: about four years, since the universe told him that this
Speaker 1: was happening. So this is a big family trip. This
Speaker 1: is like a really important trip. I have so many questions.
Speaker 4: So the first is how often do eclipses happened? What
Speaker 4: do you mean he has been planning this for four years.
Speaker 3: It's a really good question.
Speaker 1: I don't know how often they happen, but I think
Speaker 1: the last one was around twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: And who's going?
Speaker 1: So it's my dad, my mom. I'm leaving the kids
Speaker 1: and the husband at home. Really, yes, I know it's
Speaker 1: very sad. I didn't want to, but the flights are
Speaker 1: crazy eclipscouging is real. I didn't know this was a thing.
Speaker 1: Eclipscouging is very real. So yeah, it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: cute little family trip. And I have a lot of
Speaker 1: family in that part of the country.
Speaker 3: So that's super cool. Are you gonna aren't you supposed
Speaker 3: to look at it with glasses on?
Speaker 1: Yep, I'm gonna look at it with glasses. I'm a
Speaker 1: big space nerd. I love space. I would go to
Speaker 1: space tomorrow.
Speaker 3: No, no, you're not one of those.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, listen and still Richard Branson reached out to
Speaker 1: the bright side and was like, hey, we have a
Speaker 1: little pod, like a little egg that we could send
Speaker 1: you up to space in.
Speaker 3: Do you want to go? You had t me children,
Speaker 3: it's safe for the most part. I do think it's
Speaker 3: so nuts. Like I love Earth, I love my life here.
Speaker 3: Why can't we fix this place? We have a lot
Speaker 3: to do here.
Speaker 1: I know I love Earth too, but we are going
Speaker 1: to run out of resources one day. And don't you
Speaker 1: want to see Earth? Like, don't you want to just
Speaker 1: be in space and see the universe the stars?
Speaker 4: I like the grass right here in Los Angeles. I
Speaker 4: can go to Austin Texas. You can ship me to Buffalo,
Speaker 4: New York. I'm good, don't need to see.
Speaker 3: Space, all right, Well, cross that out of our venn diagram.
Speaker 4: You know, I was going to tell you what I
Speaker 4: was doing this weekend, but what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Let me ask you and be a good friend. What
Speaker 3: are you doing this weekend?
Speaker 4: So I'm watching a show called Girls on the Bus,
Speaker 4: which I'm actually really excited about because one, I'm obsessed
Speaker 4: with the show. If you haven't seen it yet, I
Speaker 4: kept thinking of you watching it because it's about female
Speaker 4: journalists on these campaign trails, literally on a bus.
Speaker 3: You're going to be obsessed. But I have a few
Speaker 3: more episodes to watch.
Speaker 4: And also we're getting somebody from Girls on the Bus
Speaker 4: here really soon.
Speaker 3: And so it's just it's so fun to watch journalism.
Speaker 3: I love.
Speaker 4: I'm so like patriotic and I love when people are
Speaker 4: invested in the truth and it's just such a great show.
Speaker 1: Danielle, do you have any guilty TV pleasures? Do you
Speaker 1: only watch shows about journalism or.
Speaker 3: Eyebrow shows like The West Wing is one of my
Speaker 3: favorite shows. I'll tell the West Wing. Yeah, it's I score,
Speaker 3: just the opening score. Oh and I need to be
Speaker 3: low brow. You just talked about the score on a
Speaker 3: TV show.
Speaker 1: That is an objectively incredible score.
Speaker 4: Okay, any actually speaking of this, I have something funny
Speaker 4: to show you. Okay, So have you been getting I'm
Speaker 4: sure you've been getting a lot of feedback from friends,
Speaker 4: from people that are listening in your dms and texts.
Speaker 1: Everyone's been so sweet. I love hearing from all of
Speaker 1: our listeners about the bright side.
Speaker 3: It's been so cool.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the listeners are really sweet, and that is
Speaker 4: so it's so fun to hear what they're gravitating towards. Yeah,
Speaker 4: my friends, not so sweet friends. Give it to me
Speaker 4: real and I need to read you some feedback from
Speaker 4: a friend.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's hear it.
Speaker 4: It changed how I show up on this show. So
Speaker 4: my friend Mike says all these great things. It's really punchy,
Speaker 4: it's well produced. I think I'm probably not your audience,
Speaker 4: but I love the vibe and even I was interested
Speaker 4: in it. You guys have a great cadence and voice.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing. It feels really PG like corporate, and
Speaker 4: you guys are saying what you're supposed to say.
Speaker 3: That's so embarrassing. I kind of agreed with him. I
Speaker 3: listen back, and I think, because we.
Speaker 4: Come from journalism, yeah, we sounded a little corporate.
Speaker 1: Well, not to take this super deep, but you're actually
Speaker 1: getting to something that I've struggled with for a long time,
Speaker 1: and it's because of my career as a broadcast journalist.
Speaker 1: You put so much pressure on yourself when you're going
Speaker 1: on air and you're live, and you're covering these really
Speaker 1: important and breaking news stories in a time of intense
Speaker 1: political polarization, and I would get so in my head
Speaker 1: and so scared about saying the wrong thing. So that's
Speaker 1: something that I have to unlearn.
Speaker 3: I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Well, what I love about working on the show is
Speaker 1: that it is forcing me to be more real and
Speaker 1: be more comfortable in my own skin. And thankfully I
Speaker 1: have a co host who brings that out of me. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I feel that way about you too. I feel like
Speaker 4: safe when we're on the mic together. But I do
Speaker 4: think that that corporate thing really hit me, and so
Speaker 4: we're both going to make an effort to sound on
Speaker 4: corporate and just kind of be ourselves. I think everybody
Speaker 4: is listening and witnessing our own undoing and unraveling in
Speaker 4: a good way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're here for it. We're showing you all parts
Speaker 1: of ourselves.
Speaker 3: Folks. All right, should we get into the show. Let's go.
Speaker 4: Okay, So we actually just did a lot of this simone.
Speaker 4: We're talking about small talk. Do you feel like you're
Speaker 4: a small talker? Are you good at this?
Speaker 3: I feel like everyone has to be a good small talker.
Speaker 1: How do you see? I have met people who are
Speaker 1: like I don't do small talk. I don't understand that.
Speaker 3: What do you do?
Speaker 1: You just you meet someone and you just jump right
Speaker 1: into childhood trauma? How does that work practically?
Speaker 3: That's my dream.
Speaker 4: I dislike small talk. I don't want to talk about
Speaker 4: like the weather or who went home on the Bachelor.
Speaker 3: I want to know about if you're.
Speaker 4: Similar to your mother or your father, or your childhood trauma,
Speaker 4: or how many times you've been in love. Like I
Speaker 4: sometimes have a physical reaction to small talk when you
Speaker 4: say you're just like jumping in. Do you have something
Speaker 4: that you jump into when the conversation is stale, or
Speaker 4: you just meet somebody and you like don't know where
Speaker 4: to go?
Speaker 3: I never don't know where to go.
Speaker 1: I have questions on questions I went to lunch with
Speaker 1: someone yesterday and just peppered him with questions the whole time,
Speaker 1: and I was like, it's your fault for going to
Speaker 1: lunch with a journalist. I'm sorry. He was like, no,
Speaker 1: it's great. I'm always the one asking questions. It never
Speaker 1: happens to me, so.
Speaker 3: But I know something's so embarrassing.
Speaker 4: Speaking of feedback, the feedback that I've gotten when I go.
Speaker 3: On dates is like this must be good.
Speaker 4: No, the feedback that I get when I go on
Speaker 4: dates is like she was cool, but like it kind
Speaker 4: of felt like an interview.
Speaker 1: Where are they leaving these reviews? Is it like YELP
Speaker 1: for dating Danielle? Where are you? How many stars are you?
Speaker 5: Guys?
Speaker 3: I'm like in tears right now. I'm laughing so hard.
Speaker 4: No, I think they'll tell like my friends.
Speaker 3: You guys.
Speaker 1: The more that I learn about Danielle's friends and their dynamics,
Speaker 1: the more questions I have.
Speaker 3: There's no boundaries. It's a true sisterhood. I don't think
Speaker 3: that's how you define sisterhood.
Speaker 4: Okay, wait, back to small talk. Yes, not my dating life. Okay,
Speaker 4: here's the thing about small talk that I realized because
Speaker 4: I never liked it was I don't ever feel like
Speaker 4: I'm good at it, like I really just go for
Speaker 4: the jugular.
Speaker 3: But I realized during.
Speaker 4: COVID that I was missing it because there were all
Speaker 4: these like low stakes interactions that we weren't half like
Speaker 4: you're Barista, your uber driver, someone at the grocery store,
Speaker 4: or a stranger you meet on an airplane, And I
Speaker 4: was like, wait, I kind of miss these moments. There
Speaker 4: is an element of small talk where you learn from
Speaker 4: people like you're on your way somewhere and you learn
Speaker 4: a great restaurant in New Mexico.
Speaker 3: Et cetera.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. I think you can be thoughtful
Speaker 1: even in small talk. Yes, something that I try to
Speaker 1: avoid doing is just heading straight for the what do
Speaker 1: you do question?
Speaker 3: Or what's your career?
Speaker 1: Especially in a city like Los Angeles. That's so that's
Speaker 1: such a big focus in conversation, and that's only a
Speaker 1: small part of our identity.
Speaker 4: I have a question that I ask if I feel
Speaker 4: like the conversation is lagging or it's a really good one,
Speaker 4: if you just meet somebody, because it helps you remember
Speaker 4: their name. When I meet somebody, I'll take you say, simone,
Speaker 4: I'm just meeting Simone and I say, Simone, I love
Speaker 4: your name.
Speaker 3: If I do, right, I'm not gonna lie. And then
Speaker 3: I say, like, who named you? What's the story behind
Speaker 3: your name?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because people usually have really beautiful stories about their
Speaker 4: family why somebody named them, and it opens up a
Speaker 4: really great conversation. You get to know them, it feels approachable,
Speaker 4: and also you remember their name.
Speaker 3: Have you read David Brooks? Yeah, of course, Okay, I
Speaker 3: talked about.
Speaker 1: David bro he talks about that's one of his great questions.
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, he stole it from me. Well, I want
Speaker 3: to go on record.
Speaker 4: By the way, David Brooks is like a fantastic New
Speaker 4: York Times bestselling writer, so he probably didn't steal my question,
Speaker 4: but we we thought similarly.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he wouldn't mind it either way.
Speaker 4: Lace up your sneakers, Bredsiders. Hannah Oakland is here talking
Speaker 4: March Madness. Right after the break, we're back and we're
Speaker 4: talking about a huge weekend in college sports because the
Speaker 4: final four in the women's NCAA Tournament tips off tonight
Speaker 4: in Cleveland and Yukon is taking on Iowa. NC State
Speaker 4: is playing in undefeated South Carolina.
Speaker 1: This has been a historic tournament on the women's side
Speaker 1: and a turning point in women's sports overall. I mean,
Speaker 1: Monday night's twenty twenty three championship rematch between Louisiana State
Speaker 1: University AKA LSU and IOWA drew a record twelve million
Speaker 1: viewers on ESPN, making it the most watched women's college
Speaker 1: basketball game ever.
Speaker 4: So a huge draw has been the tournament's star players,
Speaker 4: iowa's Caitlin Clark, LSU's Angel Reese. I mean, you've been
Speaker 4: seeing their names in the headlines, but earlier this week,
Speaker 4: Angel Reese broke the Internet by announcing that she's headed
Speaker 4: to the WNBA, and she announced it with this really
Speaker 4: dope Vogue story.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 4: Here to get us hype for this weekend's final four
Speaker 4: is Hannah O'Flynn. She's a former ESPN and NBA producer.
Speaker 4: She's a host, she's an athlete. She's one of my
Speaker 4: favorite sports content creators. Hannah, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, welcome. Oh I'm so hyped. This is amazing, Hannah.
Speaker 3: I gotta out myself.
Speaker 1: I don't typically follow March Madness, but this year, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's impossible not to.
Speaker 2: Write, Oh my gosh, I mean, there's so many levels
Speaker 2: to what's going on. From a basic standpoint, there's just
Speaker 2: individual players that are going crazy. But if you dig
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper, you realize that it's so rooted
Speaker 2: in a long history of women's basketball leading up to
Speaker 2: this point. So it's very interesting on the surface. Everyone's like, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's just this year, you know, But if you actually
Speaker 2: take a few steps back, you realize the reasons why
Speaker 2: it's completely skyrocketed.
Speaker 4: I love that you're saying, take a few steps back,
Speaker 4: because it's very clear that this moment is different from
Speaker 4: anything we've seen in the past.
Speaker 3: But what was the lead up?
Speaker 2: So women's college basketball has undoubtedly had a big spike
Speaker 2: in popularity, ticket sales, viewer ship. Although it seems like
Speaker 2: it's happening out of the blue, I think it's really
Speaker 2: rooted in years of growth, and I have four pretty
Speaker 2: clear reasons why.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: The first is social media. It encourages star power. It
Speaker 2: allows athletes to have their own voice and presence. NIL deals,
Speaker 2: which stands for Name Image Likeness, where basically you can
Speaker 2: just profit off of your own image. These deals encourage
Speaker 2: athletes to invest in themselves, in their likeness. Nike Jordan, Gatorade,
Speaker 2: bos State Farm Buick all had their first.
Speaker 5: NIL deals with women.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: The second piece I think is the sports media outlets
Speaker 2: like Overtime in ESPN, dropping mixtapes, sharing personalities, creating familiarity
Speaker 2: of players like Page Beckers, Hailey Van Lith, people that
Speaker 2: we've been following for years since their high school days.
Speaker 2: The third reason, honestly is I think the outrage over
Speaker 2: inequality in women's basketball the past few years. We saw
Speaker 2: the wimpy wait room that Sedona Prince exposed in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, and the fact that honestly we could not
Speaker 2: call the women's tournament March Madness until twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: is ridiculous. The NCAA has been exposed multiple times and
Speaker 2: I think that sparked major changes. And then the fourth
Speaker 2: and last reason is the women's college basketball atmosphere has changed.
Speaker 2: I think Yukon and Tennessee are no longer completely dominating.
Speaker 2: There are several extremely talented teams and individual stars that
Speaker 2: make the games closer and more entertaining.
Speaker 3: Yet up the competition.
Speaker 1: So I feel like we got to start by talking
Speaker 1: about the Kaitlin Clark effect. Young boys are wearing her Jersey.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's neck and neck with Lebron James on
Speaker 1: Google search trends. There is just so much buzz around her.
Speaker 1: What makes her such a phenom?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Caitlin is different. She's not human. Going down to
Speaker 2: like the statistics, she's the all time record holder for
Speaker 2: D one men's and women's basketball ever in points scores.
Speaker 2: So right now, at this moment, she's at three nine
Speaker 2: hundred total points.
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 3: Does that get we have to slow down for me?
Speaker 4: Does that mean that she's the highest scorer in women's
Speaker 4: college basketball history.
Speaker 5: And men's Yes?
Speaker 3: Wow, I didn't know that. She's so dominant it's crazy.
Speaker 2: And she has over a thousand assists right now. And
Speaker 2: I think a big thing that people don't realize is
Speaker 2: she really makes her entire team better. She's really dangerous
Speaker 2: from anywhere, not only because of her ability to shoot
Speaker 2: and her quick release, but also because she sees her
Speaker 2: entire team. You can see, like even last game, it's
Speaker 2: really hard to cover her.
Speaker 4: There's something I'm seeing that I personally want to know
Speaker 4: your opinion on. Because you played basketball growing up. I
Speaker 4: have watched men's and women's sports for years. I see
Speaker 4: men throw tantrums on the court. I mean the Chicago
Speaker 4: Detroit rivalry. Actual punches were thrown on the court, and
Speaker 4: sometimes they're suspended. Sometimes nothing happens. Women get suspended, they
Speaker 4: get yelled at, they're told that they're not sportsmen, like
Speaker 4: if they start getting really competitive. To me, this is
Speaker 4: the first time we're seeing women get competitive on the court,
Speaker 4: and it's kind of being like hyped up.
Speaker 3: Do you see that?
Speaker 5: You know? It's funny.
Speaker 2: I feel like women have been competitive for a minute.
Speaker 2: I think people are really paying attention now and they're
Speaker 2: hyper focusing on little things. And I also think social
Speaker 2: media takes moments and blows them up. It becomes gifts,
Speaker 2: it becomes memes. The one moment when Caitlyn waved goodbye
Speaker 2: and there was like a moment between Angel and Caitlyn.
Speaker 2: They when they were interviewed about it, they were like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: like we're cool, you.
Speaker 5: Know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And it's just like anyone can take any moment and
Speaker 2: make it this like they got some beef now. It's
Speaker 2: all just a really positive thing for getting people more involved.
Speaker 1: I think it's all great. Honestly, Well that's Angel Reese's perspective.
Speaker 1: I mean, she said, I will take that villain label
Speaker 1: and I will wear it proudly because she says, I
Speaker 1: know we're growing women's basketball.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She also had a moment during her interview right when
Speaker 2: they lost where you could tell at the same time,
Speaker 2: she's still human and she still has real emotions, and
Speaker 2: I think you could tell a lot of that gets
Speaker 2: to her and her teammate Flage said, I know who
Speaker 2: she is and the media doesn't always portray her that way.
Speaker 2: And if you flip the switch and think about their perspective,
Speaker 2: great because they have so many nil deals, people following
Speaker 2: every moment, but also difficult because eyes are on you
Speaker 2: all the time, constant judgment.
Speaker 1: Well, I do wonder if part of it is self preservation,
Speaker 1: her embracing that label because as a black athlete, she
Speaker 1: knows that she is going to be treated differently, that
Speaker 1: she is going to be perceived differently when she does
Speaker 1: the same things that white athletes do.
Speaker 3: There is that dynamic at play and you can't ignore it.
Speaker 2: Yes, no question, And even honestly, if you look at
Speaker 2: the dynamic between the IOWA team and the LSU team.
Speaker 2: Sure like LSU has a few white players like Haley
Speaker 2: Van lith is one of my favorite players growing up
Speaker 2: and watching. But you know a lot of people have
Speaker 2: like generalized those teams and also just like the whole
Speaker 2: stereotypes behind it.
Speaker 4: You really can't ignore the racial undertones here. It's something
Speaker 4: to think about. I think we got to give credit
Speaker 4: where credits due. In terms of Caitlin Clark, I mean,
Speaker 4: the highest score in I didn't know men's and women's
Speaker 4: college basketball.
Speaker 3: You can't, you don't.
Speaker 4: I want to take that away from her as an athlete,
Speaker 4: But I think you also have to recognize that women's
Speaker 4: basketball in college and basketball in general is a black
Speaker 4: dominant sport, and there's been tons of these players that
Speaker 4: haven't gotten the credit that they deserve. And it's sometimes
Speaker 4: hard to watch this white woman come in and all
Speaker 4: of a sudden get almost four million dollars in brand deals, etc.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I know.
Speaker 2: Angel was asked in an interview question recently about people
Speaker 2: that aren't getting credit, and she brought up one of
Speaker 2: her teammates who's been killing it. And also as black,
Speaker 2: there's always a few players.
Speaker 5: That you're kind of like, why aren't they getting the
Speaker 5: press they deserve?
Speaker 2: And I think it's the responsibility of these media outlets
Speaker 2: to really do their research and not just pick up
Speaker 2: on who's posting a certain player.
Speaker 4: All right, Hannah, we need to do a quick ad break,
Speaker 4: but when we come back, we want to get into
Speaker 4: the business of women's basketball.
Speaker 1: Stick with us, all right, we're back with Hannah o Flann.
Speaker 1: So I want to unpack the business side of this
Speaker 1: a little bit more because we touched on it, but
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot here. A twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: rules change allowed players to off of their name, image
Speaker 1: and likeness. But can you talk about why that's such
Speaker 1: a game changer for athletes like Caitlin Clark, like Angel
Speaker 1: Reese and Juji Watkins.
Speaker 2: Completely game changer. I think certain school's only profit off
Speaker 2: of players likeness.
Speaker 3: Their jersey purchases. A lot of athletes actually who.
Speaker 2: Had a really big social media presence had to choose
Speaker 2: between their YouTube channels or their instagrams and brand deals
Speaker 2: over a d one opportunity. So now you're at a
Speaker 2: point where you can do both, and so you can
Speaker 2: work on your own platform and your own presence. You
Speaker 2: can make sure people know who you are and also
Speaker 2: do all of these amazing brand deals, and on top
Speaker 2: of that, you can ball out and be an athlete.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, it's it's insane how much of a
Speaker 2: difference it is.
Speaker 1: I start thinking about how this opens up the pipeline
Speaker 1: for young girls who are playing sports too. Right, they
Speaker 1: start to see this as a real career, you know,
Speaker 1: and they start to see like, I can make this,
Speaker 1: I can make a living out of this, I can
Speaker 1: make a life out of this.
Speaker 4: The only thing here is it's really affecting a small
Speaker 4: percentage of players, Like only the best of the best
Speaker 4: of the best, maybe like one percent of players are
Speaker 4: going to get paid in nil deals right one.
Speaker 2: And that's also how it's been with the WNBA as well.
Speaker 2: If you look at like the Diane Trossi's, the super Birds,
Speaker 2: the Brianna Stewarts, they are the ones getting the brand deals.
Speaker 2: And it's amazing how many elite w players don't have
Speaker 2: as much of a presence or as much popularity as
Speaker 2: skillful as they are. Truly, the people who are getting
Speaker 2: the most press, views, involvement are the ones who are
Speaker 2: getting those deals.
Speaker 4: It's a net positive, but I think it speaks to
Speaker 4: your point about building up these players and who's responsible
Speaker 4: for that, right, Like it's a two sided game.
Speaker 1: I want to zoom out for a minute and just
Speaker 1: talk about how this is shifting the narrative around women's sports.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've covered basketball on both the men's and
Speaker 1: women's side, and Hannah, you were a D one athlete yourself.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the biggest difference about the
Speaker 1: conversations that we're having today surrounding female athletes versus those
Speaker 1: conversations from five years ago.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest difference is it's not an afterthought,
Speaker 2: It's truly the main conversation you'll see even now. The
Speaker 2: last game IOWA versus LSU, the twelve point three million
Speaker 2: views was more than the men's NBA Finals last year,
Speaker 2: which is crazy to think about eleven point six million
Speaker 2: views for the twenty twenty three NBA Finals, twelve point
Speaker 2: three million views for IOLSU, and that's not even the championship.
Speaker 2: So I've gotten more texts, more dms from random people
Speaker 2: about this game than I ever have. It's truly such
Speaker 2: an exciting time to be part of this. And I've
Speaker 2: been saying for a while, like, remember, your value doesn't
Speaker 2: decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth.
Speaker 3: So I love that Hannah.
Speaker 2: This year, the ticket price for the Final four, the
Speaker 2: cheapest ticket right now is six hundred and ninety two dollars.
Speaker 2: Do you want to guess what it was in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: Seventy four, two hundred thirty five dollars.
Speaker 5: Wosh. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I'm so glad to be alive during this time
Speaker 2: in women's sports history. We're gonna be telling our future
Speaker 2: kids about this bee Like back in my day, tickets
Speaker 2: were just thirty bucks.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: The world is catching on, you know, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: there's been talent and there's also new talent coming in.
Speaker 2: So it's not just gonna be this one moment, this
Speaker 2: one wave. It's truly like a shift and it's I'm
Speaker 2: just I really have chills even thinking about this moment
Speaker 2: in time, but also what's to come.
Speaker 5: There's so many new eyes.
Speaker 3: I'm so fired up. I'm fired up. I need a tunnel.
Speaker 3: Give me a tunnel. I want to run through it
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: There are some crazy mistakes that have been made during
Speaker 4: this tournament.
Speaker 5: Oh god.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: For example, the three.
Speaker 4: Point lines were taped on incorrectly ahead of the Yukon
Speaker 4: USC game. It was corrected, but it's hard to imagine
Speaker 4: that happening in a men's tournament.
Speaker 3: What's your take on that?
Speaker 2: So the NCAA has a history of not fully considering
Speaker 2: the woman's side. The three point line a few days
Speaker 2: ago was just like, it's funny. Everyone's like, I can't
Speaker 2: believe this is happening, and I'm like, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2: Like it's twenty twenty two. The NCAA finally made it
Speaker 2: okay and allowed us to say March madness. Before that,
Speaker 2: you couldn't call women's college tournament March madness. They only
Speaker 2: use that for the men's and the amount of weight
Speaker 2: that goes into March madness in the title. In general,
Speaker 2: it's shocking. And then the one that went very viral
Speaker 2: was Sedona Prince exposing the embarrassingly pathetic weight room.
Speaker 1: Wait I remember this. A player posted a TikTok showing
Speaker 1: the difference between the women's and men's weight rooms and
Speaker 1: it was insane. I mean, there was no comparison. It
Speaker 1: was just pathetic. It just goes to.
Speaker 2: Show you the level of ignorance and also just like
Speaker 2: what women athletes have to deal with constantly, and this
Speaker 2: isn't just on the college basketball level. WNBA absolutely certain flights.
Speaker 2: Not every player is flying first class. The payment in
Speaker 2: general has improved, but still needs to go up. Then
Speaker 2: also understand that a lot of them started so much
Speaker 2: later than everyone else because of Title nine, and the
Speaker 2: amount of progress that a lot of these leagues have
Speaker 2: had in the short period of time compared to when
Speaker 2: the men's league started is also pretty significant when you
Speaker 2: think about it. It's also so important for us to
Speaker 2: expose moments when this is happening, post about it and
Speaker 2: shout them out, and care continue to invest in women's
Speaker 2: sports and coverage, go to the games. Women's basketball isn't
Speaker 2: just for women, Hannah. We can't let you leave without
Speaker 2: hearing your predictions. So what did your bracket look like
Speaker 2: headed into the tournament? And who is your money on?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: I want to see if it's the same as mine,
Speaker 4: because you're obviously much more of an expert.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, listen, man, marsh madness is different. I
Speaker 2: looked this up so wild. The audacity we have to
Speaker 2: believe that our bracket could actually do well. If you
Speaker 2: flip a coin, you have one and nine quintillion chants
Speaker 2: of getting a perfect bracket.
Speaker 3: What is quintillion quintillion I don't even know what that's
Speaker 3: a Harry Potter number.
Speaker 2: No one has ever made a perfect bracket, did you
Speaker 2: get close? I have Iowa in South Carolina in the finals,
Speaker 2: so they're that's exciting. Overall, the bracket isn't doing super hot,
Speaker 2: but I don't. I don't know anyone who's doing well
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm already out. I had USC and LSU.
Speaker 5: I mean that's good though.
Speaker 3: That's a good guess.
Speaker 4: So you have Iowa, that means your your money's on
Speaker 4: Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 2: My money is them being in the finals. The one
Speaker 2: thing we haven't really fully talked about is the total
Speaker 2: domination of South Carolina. The last time they lost a
Speaker 2: regular season game was December thirtieth, twenty twenty one. This
Speaker 2: is the fourth consecutive appearance they're having in Final four.
Speaker 2: I genuinely going to this tournament thought they're the team
Speaker 2: to be, and I still do. Their offensive rebounds are insane.
Speaker 2: Cardos So just creates so many second chances for them,
Speaker 2: So even if they're shooting percentage is low, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: The bench is so deep, even if they're in foul trouble,
Speaker 2: it's a non issue for that reason, Pow Pow and
Speaker 2: Malaysia are reliable scorers, and Malaysia is also, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: one of like the shiftiest sauciest.
Speaker 5: Players right now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I want, truthfully, I want to
Speaker 2: see Iowa win. I think it would be insane. I
Speaker 2: think Kaitlin Clark's legacy is already so established. But the
Speaker 2: top scorer in college basketball history leads her team to
Speaker 2: the championship and wins, and then she goes number one
Speaker 2: drafted in the WNBA, Like I just that's the story
Speaker 2: I want. Honestly, you can't go wrong either way, and
Speaker 2: both are just fantastic.
Speaker 4: Hannah, I have one more question for you. You grew
Speaker 4: up playing basketball. Your career now surrounds basketball. For parents
Speaker 4: out there who have little girls, yeah, what has basketball
Speaker 4: given you?
Speaker 5: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing that people need to realize
Speaker 2: is not only the value that sports has on making
Speaker 2: you a better teammate, but the value it has in
Speaker 2: making you a better person. I am more confident because
Speaker 2: of basketball, and honestly, track and soccer and every other
Speaker 2: sport that I played growing up. Sports has given me
Speaker 2: the ability to feel like Number one. I deserve to
Speaker 2: be there, I belong. So if you invest your kids
Speaker 2: in sports from a young age, that's investing them in the.
Speaker 3: Future of the world.
Speaker 2: Like women being involved in higher places. Starts in gaining
Speaker 2: that confidence and realizing consistency is important, realizing being good
Speaker 2: teammate is important, and just seeing your full potential. And
Speaker 2: I think that's something that parents can't teach. I think
Speaker 2: kids have to go experience that and learn it themselves.
Speaker 2: And I think that's why you should get your kid
Speaker 2: involved in sports and see how into it they get.
Speaker 2: And you know, if they don't like sports, get them
Speaker 2: in music or are you know, like just kind to
Speaker 2: be part of something. But I feel the most beautiful
Speaker 2: when I'm just like sprinting, playing basketball, running in a
Speaker 2: sports broad just like sweating and like going for it.
Speaker 2: It's there's something that's so empowering and fun and alive
Speaker 2: about that, and I hope everyone can feel that at
Speaker 2: some point.
Speaker 3: Hannah, thank you so much. You got me fired up girl.
Speaker 5: You guys are you guys are awesome?
Speaker 3: So are you. Thanks for your time and for your heart.
Speaker 5: Anytime, of course.
Speaker 1: Hannah O Flynn is a host, producer, and basketball super fan.
Speaker 1: Find her on IG and TikTok at O'Flynn stone Danielle,
Speaker 1: I wasn't kidding. I'm feeling fired up right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel fired up because of what she said
Speaker 4: at the end of our conversation. You know, I hope
Speaker 4: it came through in the interview, but if you were
Speaker 4: in the room with us, I could feel her sincerity.
Speaker 4: She was saying, like, I really feel beautiful when I'm
Speaker 4: moving my body, and maybe it stuck out to me
Speaker 4: because I feel the same way, like I lift weights. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I like how it makes my body look. But mostly
Speaker 4: I lift weights because I feel so dope when I'm strong,
Speaker 4: Like I feel so much more confident when I'm strong.
Speaker 1: Well. I also love fitness and sports because the attention
Speaker 1: most of the time is not on a woman's appearance.
Speaker 1: Whenever she's playing a sport, it's on her potential as
Speaker 1: an athlete. It's on how much she can lift, how
Speaker 1: fast she can run. It's achievement based, and I just
Speaker 1: get so tired of living in a society that prioritizes
Speaker 1: our appearance. It's refreshing to be in sport and to
Speaker 1: see women celebrated for something other than physical beauty.
Speaker 3: So this is an interesting insight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the top ten most followed athletes on Instagram are
Speaker 4: all men. Okay, so people don't care about female athletes
Speaker 4: as much yet on Instagram, but the top ten most
Speaker 4: followed people in general on Instagram are predominantly women. And
Speaker 4: so to your point, I think it's mostly performers. It's
Speaker 4: like Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian. I think we're so used
Speaker 4: to seeing women's bodies perform, and we're used to men's
Speaker 4: seeing men's bodies compete. This makes me so psyched because
Speaker 4: we're really getting used to seeing women's bodies compete, and
Speaker 4: we're buying in and it's like everybody's hyped around it.
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to this idea of us being
Speaker 1: at an inflection point with women's sports, and specifically this
Speaker 1: one thing Hannah said when she was talking about the
Speaker 1: history of women's basketball being undercovered and underfunded, and that
Speaker 1: is this, Remember, your value doesn't decrease based on someone's
Speaker 1: inability to see your worth. So I'm taking that with
Speaker 1: me today. Yeah, I'm packing it up, We're leaving, throw.
Speaker 3: It in the suitcase. I love it. We really want
Speaker 3: to hear from you. Are you all watching the Final four?
Speaker 4: This weekend, tell us who you're rooting for and email
Speaker 4: us at Hello at the bright sidepodcast dot com.
Speaker 1: And on Monday, we're talking to another one of the
Speaker 1: show's grand old grand to hear some much needed parenting
Speaker 1: advice from pediatrician turned TikTok star. Ask Bobby Okay, that's
Speaker 1: it for today's show. We'll be back Monday with your
Speaker 1: daily dose of Sunshine. Listen and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: The bright Side is a production of Hello Sunshine and
Speaker 4: iHeart Podcasts and is executive produced by Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker 1: Production by Arcana Audio. Courtney Gilbert is our associate producer.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Stephanie Brown and Jessica Wank. Our engineer
Speaker 1: is PJ. Shahamat, and our senior producer is Itsy Qinthenia.
Speaker 4: Arcana's executive producers are Francis Harlowe and Abby Ruzka.
Speaker 3: Arcana's head of production is Matt Schultz.
Speaker 1: Natalie Tulluk and Maureen Polo are the executive producers for
Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 4: Julia Weaver is the supervising producer and Ali Perry is
Speaker 4: the executive producer for iHeart Podcasts. This week's episodes were
Speaker 4: recorded by Graham Gibson.
Speaker 1: The theme song is by Anna Stump and Hamilton Lighthouser.
Speaker 4: Special thanks to Connell Byrne and Will Pearson.
Speaker 1: I'm Simone Boyce. You can find me at Simone Boice
Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 4: And I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r
Speaker 4: O b A.
Speaker 3: Y See you Monday fam. Keep looking on the bright side.