Speaker 1: Hey pailm Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, journalist and sportscaster Carrie Champion
Speaker 2: is here to talk about making it to the very
Speaker 2: top of her profession and then why she decided to
Speaker 2: step away once she got there.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, May sixteenth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the right side
Speaker 3: from Hello Sunshine. Wooh, Danielle, I'm not gonna lie. I
Speaker 3: came in hot this morning. I don't feel like I
Speaker 3: can talk about anything else until we address this unhinged
Speaker 3: speech that Kansas City chiefs kicker Harrison Bucker gave over
Speaker 3: the weekend at a graduation ceremony. You know which one
Speaker 3: I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I'm read in the cheeks. I'm so embarrassed for him.
Speaker 3: This was a mess. So, if by some miracle of God,
Speaker 3: you've been spared by this speech in your algorithm, we
Speaker 3: are unfortunately going to drop this bomb on you right now.
Speaker 3: So he gave this commencement speech at Benedictine College on Saturday,
Speaker 3: which is a Catholic school. That's important to note, I think,
Speaker 3: and there was a bunch of stuff that he railed
Speaker 3: against things that he is displeased with in society. But
Speaker 3: the one thing that is getting the most attention are
Speaker 3: his remarks about women, about ambitious women. He says that
Speaker 3: women are happiest as wives and mothers as opposed to
Speaker 3: working professionals. I think, Danielle, we should probably read parts
Speaker 3: of it so that people know exactly what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: You go for it. You read it, simone.
Speaker 3: This is a big one. He's addressing the class of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, right, and he says, I think it
Speaker 3: is you, the women who have had the most diabolical
Speaker 3: lies told you. Some of you may go on to
Speaker 3: lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture
Speaker 3: to guess that the majority of you are most excited
Speaker 3: about your marriage and the children you will bring into
Speaker 3: this world. He says that his wife would say that
Speaker 3: her life truly started when she began living her vocation
Speaker 3: as a wife and mother. Can you imagine Danielle being
Speaker 3: one of those female students in the crowd and thinking, Wow,
Speaker 3: I just blew one hundred thousand dollars on my college
Speaker 3: education for nothing.
Speaker 2: Well, to top it all off, he got emotional giving
Speaker 2: the speech, and I just think men are too emotional
Speaker 2: to give commencement speeches. Honestly, Simone, his mother is a
Speaker 2: renowned physicist, which is the craziest part of all of this.
Speaker 2: I'm dying to know what she thinks of his speech.
Speaker 2: It just is so bizarre. I actually kind of giggled
Speaker 2: because I was like, Oh, this is an snl skit,
Speaker 2: this is a joke. He's a paid actor. I can't
Speaker 2: believe that this is real. The year is twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: my guy.
Speaker 3: You know, to me, the most telling element of all
Speaker 3: this is not even the misogyny, Danielle, it's the fear.
Speaker 1: Ooh, what do you mean.
Speaker 3: This is a sad, scared widow man. He is very
Speaker 3: afraid of how powerful women are becoming. Like we are
Speaker 3: becoming very powerful. Okay, we are taking our supplements, we're investing,
Speaker 3: we're healing, we're self regulating. We're touching grass out here,
Speaker 3: and we.
Speaker 1: Are touching she grass all the time. Especially on the bright.
Speaker 3: Side, he sees this. He sees that women are stimulating
Speaker 3: the economy like it's a hot girl hobby. I mean,
Speaker 3: we saw that last year with Barbie and Taylor Swift
Speaker 3: concerts and Beyonce concerts. What like it's hard, Like it's
Speaker 3: hard for us. You can tell that he is just
Speaker 3: intimidated by the shifting balance of power in this world.
Speaker 3: That's all.
Speaker 1: This is all I can say, is amen.
Speaker 2: Speaking of hot girl hobbies, Simone, we have a new
Speaker 2: cover girl in town. Gail King is on the cover
Speaker 2: of Sports Illustrated and it's their famous swimsuit issue. And
Speaker 2: I'm only going to say her age because I think
Speaker 2: it matters. She is sixty nine years old, she's an
Speaker 2: award winning journalist, and she is on the cover of
Speaker 2: Sports Illustrated. What do you think about that.
Speaker 3: I love this. I think this is so major. I
Speaker 3: think this is so huge just for women overall, because
Speaker 3: here is Gail King, one of the best journalists that
Speaker 3: we have right now now, one of the smartest women
Speaker 3: in our society. She's brilliant, and she's also sexy, and
Speaker 3: she's in a bathing suit and she's embracing her beauty.
Speaker 3: And that is exactly the kind of nuance that I
Speaker 3: think that is so important for everyone to see that
Speaker 3: women can be multi dimensional. We don't have to just
Speaker 3: be one thing.
Speaker 2: I think it's super powerful and I loved seeing her
Speaker 2: CBS Morning anchors celebrate her tony.
Speaker 1: And Nate were like woohooing in the most respectful way.
Speaker 2: It was really fun to see them celebrate the moment
Speaker 2: along with everybody else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is definitely a new dawn for news anchors
Speaker 3: and perception of news anchors, because even just a few
Speaker 3: years ago, I don't think that this would be as
Speaker 3: celebrated as it is. So I actually really applaud her
Speaker 3: for taking the first step here because hopefully this will
Speaker 3: just brought in our view of who journalists are, and
Speaker 3: what journalists are capable of, and what a journalist looks like.
Speaker 3: I sent this to you over Instagram. What did you
Speaker 3: think when you saw it?
Speaker 1: I'm here for it.
Speaker 2: I mentioned her age earlier purposely because I think in
Speaker 2: our culture we desexualize women after they're no longer able
Speaker 2: to be fertile, and we particularly desexualize mothers in our culture.
Speaker 2: Gail is over forty five, she's a mother, she's, like
Speaker 2: you said, a journalist, and I just I think this
Speaker 2: speaks to the idea that beauty is not about what
Speaker 2: you look like, it's about who you become. And Gail
Speaker 2: has become such a powerhouse and she's bridging every single gap.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when did we become this society that says, if
Speaker 3: you are a journalist and you show up to work
Speaker 3: wearing a suit interviewing dignitaries and politicians, that you can't
Speaker 3: also enjoy yourself in a bathing suit on a beat.
Speaker 3: A bathing suit is a functional piece of clothing, so
Speaker 3: you can swim in the warm gulf of Mexico. Let's
Speaker 3: be able to hold two truths at once. People.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to keep saying amen to you today.
Speaker 2: In other exciting news, Legally Blonde is coming to a
Speaker 2: screen near you.
Speaker 1: What like it's hard, guys? A Legally Blonde prequel is
Speaker 1: coming our way next year.
Speaker 2: Courtesy of our boss, Reese Witherspoon. Courtesy of Hello Sunshine
Speaker 2: and Amazon Prime. Simon, You're not the only one screaming.
Speaker 2: Screams could be heard around the internet round the world.
Speaker 2: People have been dying for more Elwoods. And this time
Speaker 2: we're going to get Ellwoods in high school, long before
Speaker 2: she went to Harvard. We're gonna find out how she
Speaker 2: became everybody's favorite Gemini vegetarian.
Speaker 3: I cannot wait to see high school el Woods. I
Speaker 3: want to see did she go through any growing pains?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: What was that coming? Of age time for her, Like
Speaker 3: you know, this movie Legally Blonde has always been a
Speaker 3: cultural touchstone for me. I remember watching it with girlfriends
Speaker 3: growing up and being so entertained but also impacted by
Speaker 3: the depth of it too, and the ambition and determination
Speaker 3: of this woman. But what's been really cool to see
Speaker 3: Danielle is however lasting the impact of this film is,
Speaker 3: it comes up all the time whenever we interview women
Speaker 3: on this show.
Speaker 2: I also think this speaks to exactly what we were talking
Speaker 2: about a few minutes ago, which is Elle Woods was
Speaker 2: multi dimensional. There's this perseverance in her character that always,
Speaker 2: for like lack of a better word, just inspired me.
Speaker 1: You watch that movie and you leave.
Speaker 2: The theater, or you leave the airplane, or you leave
Speaker 2: your bedroom wherever you're watching it, being like I can
Speaker 2: do anything. I'm just excited for a new generation of
Speaker 2: girls to get to feel that.
Speaker 3: I also loved seeing Reese really late into the excitement
Speaker 3: around this. She posted this really cute video where she
Speaker 3: was dressing up in pink and putting up on the
Speaker 3: pink heels, and then she walked out on stage to
Speaker 3: give a presentation and she did the bend in the
Speaker 3: snap and I appreciate a creator who understands how beloved
Speaker 3: their work is, and I just love that she's leaning
Speaker 3: into the excitement and enthusiasm around this project too. Do
Speaker 3: we think Jennifer Coolidge is going to make a cameo?
Speaker 3: She has to, She must, she must. And if you
Speaker 3: are counting down the days to the release of this
Speaker 3: TV series like us, we know that it's coming out
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five. We're not sure exactly when, but
Speaker 3: we'll keep you posted.
Speaker 2: After the break, journalist in sportscaster Carrie Champion is telling
Speaker 2: us about her decades long career covering sports and why
Speaker 2: she chose to leave at the top of her game.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the bright Side Today, we're joined by
Speaker 2: journalist and sportscaster Carrie Champion. Carrie has spent decades covering
Speaker 2: the top stories in the sports world for Vice, ESPN,
Speaker 2: and now Amazon. Her show, The Carrie Champion Show, is
Speaker 2: a must watch for its unfiltered and straightforward look at
Speaker 2: sports and the role that they play in our daily lives.
Speaker 2: It features interviews with current and former athletes, celebrities, writers,
Speaker 2: and analysts.
Speaker 3: Carrie also hosts a podcast, Naked with Carrie Champion. Which
Speaker 3: is all about getting guests to lift the veil and
Speaker 3: get vulnerable about their lives and careers. Carrie, welcome to
Speaker 3: the show.
Speaker 4: You guys are so bright and happy and cheery, and
Speaker 4: I was like, I have to wear pink. That's what
Speaker 4: made me think. I was like, yes, I wore bright colors.
Speaker 4: You didn't say, but.
Speaker 3: You've seen our logo clearly, y, Yes, it's right bank.
Speaker 3: All right, Carrie, the producers are making me tell you
Speaker 3: a very embarrassing story. Okay, I tried to get out
Speaker 3: of this. Here we go. So the truth is, I've
Speaker 3: been following your career for a very long time, you know,
Speaker 3: all the way back to the Tennis channel days. And
Speaker 3: when I first moved to Los Angeles, I worked at
Speaker 3: a management and casting company editing reels, and your reels
Speaker 3: was one of the reels that came across my desk.
Speaker 3: So I literally have been following you from the very
Speaker 3: early days. And so just watching your career, watching you
Speaker 3: go on to ESPN, get your own shows. I've been
Speaker 3: cheering you on from afar.
Speaker 4: That's so wonderful. Don't make me cry. This is the
Speaker 4: bright side.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I'm curious, like, what were those early days like,
Speaker 3: because you've been at this for.
Speaker 4: A minute, and I have, and let me tell you,
Speaker 4: it feels like I'm still at it. It really does sometimes.
Speaker 4: First of all, thank you, that was very kind. And
Speaker 4: every time I hear a story like that, I don't
Speaker 4: hear them often, but when I do hear them, I
Speaker 4: always think that I'm still on the right path and
Speaker 4: doing what I was supposed to be doing. But the
Speaker 4: early days were hard for me, I must be honest,
Speaker 4: but I didn't know they were hard because I just
Speaker 4: wanted to do it. I was like a one man
Speaker 4: ban I graduated from UCLA. I drove my niece on
Speaker 4: Ultima to West Virginia for my very first job. That
Speaker 4: was just so hungry, and I remember thinking, I'm going
Speaker 4: to be Oprah. I'm gonna be Katie Couric. I wanted
Speaker 4: to do that in such a real way, and I
Speaker 4: didn't know why I wanted to do it, but it
Speaker 4: felt as if it was my calling. I mean, since
Speaker 4: I was seven years old, I was like, this is
Speaker 4: what I'm gonna do. I saw Oprah on TV. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm going to do that. I don't know how, but
Speaker 4: I'm going to do that. And so the days were hard,
Speaker 4: like a one man ban, editing, shooting, writing, doing all
Speaker 4: of the things and being okay with it. So the
Speaker 4: early days are, to your question, a lot of jumping around.
Speaker 4: I went from West Virginia to Florida to not having
Speaker 4: a job, moving back to LA working part time at
Speaker 4: this Orange County place, working at E Entertainment as a producer,
Speaker 4: having a minute to feel like I was going to
Speaker 4: be a producer because I was like, I can't. No
Speaker 4: one's hired me to be in front of the camera,
Speaker 4: so I'm going to produce. Then I worked as an
Speaker 4: assignment editor, and all of that, I realized helped create
Speaker 4: who I am today. I was able to identify what
Speaker 4: a story looks like, I can produce a story, and
Speaker 4: so all of it worked really well for me, even
Speaker 4: when I went to Atlanta, because I moved to Atlanta,
Speaker 4: which is considered a top ten market, but it was
Speaker 4: still local news. And I remember, you know, my photographer
Speaker 4: couldn't get a shot because he had to finish editing,
Speaker 4: and I took the camera out and I got the shot.
Speaker 4: I was like, didn't you worry about it? I got it,
Speaker 4: you know. So the early days for me were just
Speaker 4: forming a foundation that I didn't know would be the
Speaker 4: foundation that I have today.
Speaker 2: You mentioned a few of those people that you looked at, Oprah,
Speaker 2: Diane Sawyer, Katie Kurk.
Speaker 4: Those are my ogs, like, those are the those are
Speaker 4: the legends, the legends like, And people will say things
Speaker 4: to me about that, and I'm like, hold on, hold on,
Speaker 4: I didn't interview leaders of state and stare them down
Speaker 4: and say how dear you? Like That's what Diane Sawyer did,
Speaker 4: and that's what Barbara Walks did. And they were unafraid
Speaker 4: and unapologetic, and they didn't. It was before TikTok and
Speaker 4: social media. They were doing it to make sure they
Speaker 4: told the story.
Speaker 2: When I look at your Instagram, so much of it
Speaker 2: is about opening a door behind you when a door
Speaker 2: has been opened for you. That seems to be such
Speaker 2: a common theme. Yeah, did you have people that did
Speaker 2: that for you or you wanting to change that narrative?
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: When I arrived at ESPN, probably my second year, I
Speaker 4: was inundated with emails and I was like, oh, I
Speaker 4: should start helping others because I don't remember. There was
Speaker 4: one lady local news here and she still works here
Speaker 4: in local news. Pat Harvey. She works on the local
Speaker 4: CITs station, and my mom walked up to her one
Speaker 4: day when we were at church and said, my daughter
Speaker 4: wants to do what you want to do. Can she
Speaker 4: talk to you? And I'm like, mom, Mom, I begins
Speaker 4: to stop. I'm embarrassed, and pat was like sure, and
Speaker 4: she let me come and hang out in the studios
Speaker 4: in Hollywood, and she gave me like a couple of
Speaker 4: hours and she just said, I wish you luck. And
Speaker 4: I remember thinking that was such an incredible couple of
Speaker 4: hours of my life. It just reminded me this is
Speaker 4: what I wanted to do, even though I hadn't had
Speaker 4: a job, but I thought, wouldn't it be cool if
Speaker 4: people had access to everyone? Now, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And so that's probably why I'm I feel very obligated,
Speaker 4: and also I feel like it's a responsibility, you know,
Speaker 4: to give back. That's arguably one of the most rewarding
Speaker 4: things of what we get to do.
Speaker 2: I find that the words that I'm giving other people
Speaker 2: I most need to hear myself.
Speaker 4: Correct, I'm talking to myself as I talked to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah correct, Yeah, so interesting. And we were talking Simone
Speaker 4: about her moving to New York. I'm like, move, move,
Speaker 4: do it now, do it? I support it.
Speaker 3: If you haven't lived in New York yet, Danielle, I
Speaker 3: think it's like a necessary rite of passage, Like you
Speaker 3: got to do.
Speaker 2: It, well, Carrie, just moved. Because here's what I was
Speaker 2: interested in. You said to me you had an eat
Speaker 2: prey love moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think people look at you, Carrie Champion, and
Speaker 2: they're like, she really did it. So to hear that
Speaker 2: you had sort of like a crisis moment was so
Speaker 2: interesting to me.
Speaker 3: What were you feeling?
Speaker 4: I think everyone does. I think how we present what
Speaker 4: people what they see of us, and who we are
Speaker 4: separate from what people see of us. Yeah, I have
Speaker 4: always and I don't know where this comes from. I
Speaker 4: was like, I have to travel in the direction of
Speaker 4: what I fear most. And I feared moving to New
Speaker 4: York and adjusting to a whole bunch of new people
Speaker 4: and hanging out with folks and working at CNN, and
Speaker 4: it's politics isn't necessarily my thing. I've been in sports.
Speaker 4: How do I make the intersection happen between the two.
Speaker 4: I'm panicking and I'm like, okay, head first, just do it.
Speaker 4: Stop thinking about it and just do it now. I
Speaker 4: don't know if that always works. I wouldn't tell everybody
Speaker 4: to do what I did, but you do. I did
Speaker 4: it because I wanted to, and I have no regrets
Speaker 4: because I would have always thought, well, why didn't I
Speaker 4: live in New York? And to Smolle's point, everyone, it's
Speaker 4: a rite of past. Everyone must live in New York,
Speaker 4: whoever's listening. If you are single or whatever your situation is,
Speaker 4: you have to move to New York at least four
Speaker 4: six months just to try it, you know, just to
Speaker 4: try it because the city gives you an energy that
Speaker 4: you can never get from anywhere.
Speaker 3: The Graduate School of Humanity, it is the Graduate School
Speaker 3: of Humanity, and it forces you to understand.
Speaker 4: Like that when they say if you can make it anywhere,
Speaker 4: you can make if you make it in your it's true.
Speaker 4: Like once you can get on the subway and yell
Speaker 4: at everyone, you're all set.
Speaker 3: Carrie, you talked about making it, and I have this
Speaker 3: theory that making it doesn't actually exist. Right, what do
Speaker 3: you think about my theory? Is that real?
Speaker 4: Absolutely? It's accurate. This world as we know it is
Speaker 4: ever evolving and changing quickly. Laws, the way that we
Speaker 4: move and manifest and so I'll just use me an example.
Speaker 4: I want to have this show and I want to
Speaker 4: be able to tell these stories. Then you get there
Speaker 4: and you're so caught up in doing the gig you
Speaker 4: don't even know that you've made it. And I feel
Speaker 4: like making it always just redefines itself because you work
Speaker 4: so hard to present an image. I think it's actually
Speaker 4: now with social media, you think everyone is doing everything
Speaker 4: amazing that you want to do, and then you meet
Speaker 4: them and you're like, Okay, no, we're all just figuring
Speaker 4: it out. We're all just grinding it out, and it's
Speaker 4: never making it. It's just it's accomplishing goals. So for
Speaker 4: me now, one of my big goals would be I
Speaker 4: want to be able to tell really authentic stories that
Speaker 4: meet the intersection of sports and culture and activism in music.
Speaker 4: But I also feel very responsible of the words that
Speaker 4: I choose, the people that I interview, the things that
Speaker 4: I say, and that's a whole other level of responsibility,
Speaker 4: and the making it starts to subside. That doesn't become
Speaker 4: the goal anymore. The goal is am I really being
Speaker 4: responsible with what I have been given?
Speaker 2: Well, okay, I want to drill into that because you
Speaker 2: worked your way up at ESPN, you were there for
Speaker 2: eight years and you decided to leave. I'm sort of
Speaker 2: fascinated by the idea that you left this job that
Speaker 2: you had always dreamed of. You talked about all those
Speaker 2: moments where you were one man banding.
Speaker 4: Right, and you're like, I made it.
Speaker 2: But was it that it didn't feel the way you
Speaker 2: thought it would, or.
Speaker 4: What was really really hard? It was really really hard
Speaker 4: and really really rewarding. I was a rookie when I
Speaker 4: first came in, so I'm working with Skip Bayless and
Speaker 4: Stephen A. Smith. You have to be made of something
Speaker 4: really special to sit between those two, especially on a
Speaker 4: show called First Take, which was very still very popular,
Speaker 4: still is just as popular. But it was such a
Speaker 4: man's world and it was I described it this way
Speaker 4: I wrote about it. Have you ever sit in the
Speaker 4: middle seat on maybe a cross country flight from LA
Speaker 4: to New York. You can't really lean too far to
Speaker 4: your left or too far to your right because you're
Speaker 4: going to be in someone's space. So you're just trying
Speaker 4: to stay like this the whole time I described my
Speaker 4: experience on that show, I couldn't get too comfortable on
Speaker 4: my left or to my right, just because of the
Speaker 4: dynamics of the show. And I remember thinking, God, this
Speaker 4: is the hardest thing I've ever done. And there were times,
Speaker 4: you know Danielle's interview, one of my one of my
Speaker 4: closest friends in Jamel Hill, there were times where I
Speaker 4: would college amount. I'm like, today's last day. I'm quitting.
Speaker 4: She's like, what are you talking about today? I'm quitting.
Speaker 4: You said I was there for eight years. I tried
Speaker 4: to quit a year in and she talked one there. Yeah, Oh,
Speaker 4: I got six months in and she talked me on
Speaker 4: the line. She was like you. I was like, I
Speaker 4: can't do this because there was such an incredible amount
Speaker 4: of pressure on the one in the middle seat. I
Speaker 4: was supposed to quote unquote contain these two who can't
Speaker 4: be contained. I wasn't that familiar with sports. They didn't
Speaker 4: want me there. I came from the Tennis channel. They
Speaker 4: didn't know my work. I wasn't an established sports journalist
Speaker 4: in their opinion. And by there, I mean the people
Speaker 4: who watched the show, the people within the building, and
Speaker 4: so they made it they made it hard. But you
Speaker 4: do that, you do that to Riki. So it's called
Speaker 4: Ricky hazing, and I don't complain too much because it
Speaker 4: taught me so much. It was one of the best
Speaker 4: lessons of my life. I remember when I was Atlanta
Speaker 4: and I got quote unquote fired for cursing on air
Speaker 4: and I was doing a commercial break. It wasn't really cursing,
Speaker 4: but it was like, I said, mother sucker. And back
Speaker 4: then I was like, you can't say mother sucker. And
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my god. Everyone says that it's a
Speaker 4: cultural thing too. I was like, no, that's badass that
Speaker 4: you said that. Yeah, mother sucker. Well, by the way,
Speaker 4: that's my personality. And you ladies can relate to this.
Speaker 4: I'm sure your personality and sometimes perhaps your confidence can
Speaker 4: make people uncomfortable because it's a natural thing. It's just natural.
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to be anyone else but myself. And
Speaker 4: so while I was uncomfortable, I still believed. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I belong. I don't know about you, guys, scooed over here.
Speaker 3: I come, you know.
Speaker 4: And so it was hard, and it was always hard,
Speaker 4: and I'm okay with that. I like hard. I like it.
Speaker 4: I like to work for things.
Speaker 3: And one of the hardest parts, I think is you
Speaker 3: also have people who work at that establishment telling you
Speaker 3: to be authentic, and you're like, I'm trying, I'm showing
Speaker 3: up as my full self, but yet there's this suffocation
Speaker 3: of that self that happens that's really hard to record.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys feel like you bring
Speaker 4: your full selves, but it's hard to bring your full
Speaker 4: self to work.
Speaker 3: I had a kind of similar experience where I felt
Speaker 3: like I was catfished by my dream job. Oh, like like,
Speaker 3: this is going to be perfect, this is gonna be
Speaker 3: everything that I wanted to be, and then slowly over
Speaker 3: time you realize, wait, the dream has shifted. Now the
Speaker 3: dream is different. So what did that experience at ESPN
Speaker 3: reveal to you about your ever evolving dreams?
Speaker 4: You know, I wanted to get back to news. It
Speaker 4: was twenty twenty, like so much was happening. The world
Speaker 4: just shut down, and I didn't know that was going
Speaker 4: to happen. But I just felt like I had to
Speaker 4: get back to what brought me into this business, and
Speaker 4: that was telling stories of people who I was very
Speaker 4: interested in or I wanted to help. I remember being
Speaker 4: and this is a story about why I wanted to
Speaker 4: be a journalist, not only just because I saw Oprah,
Speaker 4: but I was seven years old and I lived in
Speaker 4: a neighborhood in West LA not far from here, and
Speaker 4: we a bunch of kids in the neighborhood started cleaning
Speaker 4: up the neighborhood with like brooms from our houses because
Speaker 4: the neighborhood wasn't that great, and so we would just
Speaker 4: take some brooms from our houses and clean up the streets.
Speaker 4: And a local news reporter came and she covered the
Speaker 4: story and it was what they call a kicker, and
Speaker 4: we were all just standing there excited, and we're like, yeah,
Speaker 4: with our brooms, right and whatever things we're doing, we're
Speaker 4: clean up our neighborhood. And I remember listening to the
Speaker 4: story and I thought, wow, she sure did mischaracterize what
Speaker 4: we were doing. As I go, some kids who are
Speaker 4: down on their luck and heart, you know, dah da
Speaker 4: da da, and they're trying to build up their neighborhood.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, well, that's not really what we were
Speaker 4: trying to do. And so it was told from her
Speaker 4: lens and I was like, Okay, this is it. It's
Speaker 4: a brown woman. I need to get out here and
Speaker 4: tell the stories. I need to represent us. I need
Speaker 4: to speak for those who can't speak for themselves. My
Speaker 4: dream job is to tell stories that are representative of
Speaker 4: my culture of the world that we live in, because
Speaker 4: that is how we're going to learn to coexist.
Speaker 1: Who'd you call for when you quit? Who is your call?
Speaker 4: That's a good one. I talked about it a lot
Speaker 4: with a lot of my friends. But at the time,
Speaker 4: do you guys know Bosima Saint John? I know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: So at the time I said, Bosama, I want you
Speaker 4: to help me write a resignation letter. She's like what.
Speaker 4: And I was like, I'm gonna leave. She was like,
Speaker 4: I don't like what they're paying you. You're grossly underpage.
Speaker 4: You're worth so much more. It's time for us to leave. Huh.
Speaker 4: And I was just like, no, that's not even the reason.
Speaker 4: I just want to leave because I'm not. She's like,
Speaker 4: you're not. They don't you know. She just let me
Speaker 4: know where I was and who I was and what
Speaker 4: she saw for me, and she was like, it may
Speaker 4: not be easy, it may not be like the biggest platform,
Speaker 4: but you have a vision and you should go and
Speaker 4: you should try to figure that out and don't let
Speaker 4: the world's timeline. Define your timeline. So if it takes
Speaker 4: five years or ten years for you to do whatever
Speaker 4: that next big thing is, that's your dream job, let
Speaker 4: it take five or ten years. You let the world
Speaker 4: figure out what time it is. You don't have to
Speaker 4: figure it out, you know. And agents were like trying
Speaker 4: to talk me out of it, and I'm like, it'll
Speaker 4: be okay, it'll be fine, trust me. And it's been fine. Well,
Speaker 4: it's not the same platform right where you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: you can see me Monday through Friday. Here, the work
Speaker 4: has been more valuable, lucrative, and I've been able to
Speaker 4: do the things that I wanted to do. I couldn't
Speaker 4: just up and move to New.
Speaker 3: York mm hmmm. Or you have ownership now, which is invaluable.
Speaker 4: And people don't understand that. Once and you pick and
Speaker 4: choose a project you like and love and the things
Speaker 4: that you want to do. And I think every person
Speaker 4: who's done that, and you know who, I think about
Speaker 4: a lot. I think of Aaron Andrews because when she left,
Speaker 4: people were like, why are you leaving? And I remember
Speaker 4: when she left, it was such a brew ha ha.
Speaker 4: And I was really proud of her. I was like,
Speaker 4: good for you. You go where you want it. It's
Speaker 4: like a relationship. Who's staying in a relationship where they're
Speaker 4: not wanted. She's my fellow gator. We both are.
Speaker 3: Uh huh go gata.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think about it on the Voice. Do you
Speaker 2: ever watch that show?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know how people pick who they're like they grew
Speaker 2: up watching, but they actually should be picking the person
Speaker 2: that wants them the most.
Speaker 4: That's it. I think it's sort of a visual every
Speaker 4: because life people will not appreciate you. My mother always
Speaker 4: used to say, I don't know if I taught you
Speaker 4: how to be humble. I definitely taught you you can,
Speaker 4: you deserve and you should go out and get what
Speaker 4: you want. But I haven't taught you humility. And I
Speaker 4: was like, life teaches us that you don't need.
Speaker 3: I think that's so good that your mom didn't teach
Speaker 3: you humility because I feel like the generations that came
Speaker 3: before me, the ancestors that I am, I'm standing on
Speaker 3: their shoulders now, it was all humility. It was like
Speaker 3: too much humility, So that that's healing generational trauma right there?
Speaker 4: Correct? And I told her, I said, you did a
Speaker 4: great job because you taught me to pull up a
Speaker 4: chair and sit and say and speak. And while that
Speaker 4: makes people uncomfortable, life will humble you. You don't need
Speaker 4: someone to teach you humility. You will ultimately life will.
Speaker 4: You will live life. Things will happen, you will go
Speaker 4: out into the world. And you're like, oh, that humbled me,
Speaker 4: So that's my whole point. I'm like, no, no, no worry,
Speaker 4: life will do that. What you taught me was to
Speaker 4: get back up and keep trying to believe in myself,
Speaker 4: to pick and choose, to find good people to surround
Speaker 4: myself with who believe in themselves. All the things that
Speaker 4: we deserve, All the things that you have now you deserve.
Speaker 4: You deserve.
Speaker 3: Not Carrie coming on the bright side, gassing us up.
Speaker 4: Yes, you need it, you deserve.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right
Speaker 2: back with Carrie Champion. And we're back with Carrie Champion. Carrie,
Speaker 2: you've been covering women's sports for a long time, so
Speaker 2: we have to talk about women's basketball this year. And
Speaker 2: Caitlyn Clark, how did it feel to see these amazing
Speaker 2: women finally get.
Speaker 4: Some shine college basketball? Loved it? I remember the day
Speaker 4: that LSU won last year, won the championship, and I
Speaker 4: don't know if you know the story, Angel Reese was
Speaker 4: like taunting Caitlin but with the ring right, doing what
Speaker 4: Kaitlyn normally does, but she was doing it back to her.
Speaker 4: And there were all these people who just started watching
Speaker 4: sports and they were weighing in and they were saying
Speaker 4: these awful things about Angel Rees and Cna Goes. Can
Speaker 4: you come on to talk about it? And then I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, we've made it. Normally they bury sports
Speaker 4: at the very end, and this is their lead story.
Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, this is exciting. So I was
Speaker 4: excited about it. I know people, Kaylen Clark to me
Speaker 4: is the Tiger Woods of her sport, meaning Tiger Woods.
Speaker 4: When he started to play, really changed the purse and
Speaker 4: how much money his colleagues would make because he was
Speaker 4: so incredible and people wanted to watch him. They were
Speaker 4: adding tours because of him and adding tournaments because of him,
Speaker 4: and everyone started to benefit, and people say what they want.
Speaker 4: She brought attention to a league that has needed attention
Speaker 4: and should be respected, you know what I mean. I'm
Speaker 4: happy that she's here because she's opening the door and
Speaker 4: it's not unsimilar to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, you
Speaker 4: know those two. Their battle this last two years is
Speaker 4: not unsimilar to the NBA and when the NBA needed help.
Speaker 4: And so this is a beautiful time because the business
Speaker 4: of women's sports is skyrocketing and there is so much
Speaker 4: money to be made. And not only is there so
Speaker 4: much money to be made, there are so many stories
Speaker 4: to be told, and there are so many talented women
Speaker 4: out there that have yet to be discovered. And so
Speaker 4: I'm excited about this process. It's really going to change
Speaker 4: in real time. Everything is happening in real time.
Speaker 2: We're living through it, which is really cool.
Speaker 3: Who are you watching in the WNBA right now? I mean,
Speaker 3: who's your team? What players are you excited about?
Speaker 4: My team was the Sparks. I will say that I'm
Speaker 4: the bias journalist that lives in La, so everything all LA.
Speaker 4: But I'm really interested, if I'm being honest with you,
Speaker 4: I'm really interested in the teams with the storylines and
Speaker 4: the characters right now, which is the Las Vegas Aces
Speaker 4: and obviously the Indiana favor. Las Vegas Aces have won
Speaker 4: back to back. They have this phenomenal player named Asia
Speaker 4: Wilson and Kelsey Plum and all these other great players.
Speaker 4: And then Indiana Fever have Caitlyn Clark and Eliah Boston
Speaker 4: and those two players are who's up next? You know
Speaker 4: what I mean? They are up next, and Caitlyn say
Speaker 4: what you want? This woman is Steph Curry of the WNBA.
Speaker 4: I hate to do the male comparison, but her her
Speaker 4: shooting is out of this world. Watching how fast she is,
Speaker 4: how quick she can go, how she can stop on
Speaker 4: the dime. Now, she's not the best that's ever done it,
Speaker 4: but anybody who has the ability to shoot that way,
Speaker 4: there's something special about that. And you just don't see.
Speaker 4: I remember when Steph Curry hit the league and everyone's like,
Speaker 4: where is this? Hey's Steph had been in the league.
Speaker 4: He just he had been in the league.
Speaker 3: You know, wasn't shooting threes like that?
Speaker 4: Correct? And so now it made you think, and they
Speaker 4: were the conversation, who's the goat? Is it Steph or
Speaker 4: is it is it Lebron? Like That's what we're witnessing
Speaker 4: right now, and it's exciting, folks. So we got to
Speaker 4: get in, We got to tap in.
Speaker 3: You've interviewed thousands of athletes over the course of your career.
Speaker 3: I gotta know, who are the biggest characters that you've
Speaker 3: spoken to and was there anyone who surprised you?
Speaker 4: You know, these are all these are funny. I have
Speaker 4: so many interesting stories about these gents and ladies for
Speaker 4: the memoir. For the memoir, I'll change their names not
Speaker 4: so much. No, Kobe Bryant was my favorite interview. He
Speaker 4: rests in peace. And when I went to CLA, he
Speaker 4: would come to UCLA and train at Polly Pavilion, and
Speaker 4: a lot of people did. Shaquille Magic Johnson would come.
Speaker 4: It was really a bird's eye view into some of
Speaker 4: these athletes. But I was a diehard Kobe fan because
Speaker 4: I'm a diehard Laker fan because my grandmother taught me
Speaker 4: basketball and so that's why. So it's like either it's
Speaker 4: a rite a passage in our family. You like the Lakers,
Speaker 4: or you move out. When I finally got to meet Kobe,
Speaker 4: he was very, very professional, and if Kobe didn't like
Speaker 4: something you said about him on air, he would find
Speaker 4: a way to share it with you. And when I
Speaker 4: met him and I did the interview, he had just
Speaker 4: retired and he would always say to his wife. This
Speaker 4: is the thing about these athletes. You think they don't
Speaker 4: know who you are when you're covering them, they're very
Speaker 4: well aware of you are. And I remember him introducing
Speaker 4: me to Vanessa and he was like, Vanessa, I want
Speaker 4: you to meet Carrie. She's a big like her fan.
Speaker 4: She always says nice things about me. I was like, God,
Speaker 4: started laughing because it was like, well, I'm objective. He's like, Okay,
Speaker 4: that's fine. It's sure you are.
Speaker 3: But he was one of the good Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: But he was one of my favorites because of his mentality.
Speaker 4: And I know there's controversy with everyone, but how he
Speaker 4: carried himself, how he was about his business, how he
Speaker 4: didn't care about being popular or famous, or wearing the
Speaker 4: latest suits or rapping the latest songs or being the
Speaker 4: hot guy or whatever. It was just not his thing.
Speaker 4: And a part of me understood the loner mentality. When
Speaker 4: he passed away, it was beautiful to hear how everyone
Speaker 4: said he would call them and mentor them and say
Speaker 4: wonderful things and give advice.
Speaker 2: I really look at you that way. Oh, I think
Speaker 2: you give back so much. Right after this, you're going
Speaker 2: to UCLA to talk when you told me that. I
Speaker 2: kept thinking, I wonder what you would tell that girl
Speaker 2: that was at UCLA all those years ago.
Speaker 4: Oh what would I tell? Like? Well, first of all,
Speaker 4: I would say, get to class on time, never on
Speaker 4: time in to class. I get emotional about this because
Speaker 4: so many times I could see it, but I couldn't
Speaker 4: see the path. I didn't know how to get there.
Speaker 4: God bless her my mom and my father. You know,
Speaker 4: high school diplomas. They didn't go to college. And if
Speaker 4: I was to tell myself anything, I would say, remember,
Speaker 4: just to put your head down, leave your blinders on,
Speaker 4: and do the work.
Speaker 3: And there's no way to prepare that little girl for
Speaker 3: all of the bias that women in this business run into, right,
Speaker 3: and I know that you've run up against some of that.
Speaker 3: I mean vocal criticism about your qualifications or like do
Speaker 3: you even deserve to be here covering sports? Or even
Speaker 3: your looks? How did you push through that at each
Speaker 3: stage of your career.
Speaker 4: I will say this, growing up, I'd never had people
Speaker 4: oh you're so pretty. It would always be you're so smart,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, yeah smart, that was my affirmation and
Speaker 4: or quick so the the I didn't care about the
Speaker 4: comments about what I look like. That didn't bother me.
Speaker 4: That was their own deal. Being qualified, being prepared, knowing
Speaker 4: the sport in this particular case, knowing the story, saying
Speaker 4: the names correctly. All of that feeds into your credibility,
Speaker 4: and to me, that was the only thing that mattered.
Speaker 4: I remember interviewing Floyd Mayweather and miss speaking about something
Speaker 4: or didn't I didn't have a fact right, and I
Speaker 4: just I wouldn't. I mean, for a year, I would
Speaker 4: not forgive myself.
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I'm the same way. I pick up oarurt
Speaker 3: every little thing, and then I go back and watch
Speaker 3: the tape. Yeah, and it was never as big a
Speaker 3: deal as never make it out to be.
Speaker 4: Never never, and we're giving it so much power and
Speaker 4: no one even remembers at all but you. And I
Speaker 4: think one of my producers gave me the best advice.
Speaker 4: He was like, never get too high and never get
Speaker 4: too low. He was like, when they say they love
Speaker 4: you that they really don't, and when they say they
Speaker 4: hate you, they really don't. You're not either or like.
Speaker 4: He was like, don't get too high, don't get too low.
Speaker 4: Stay in the middle. It's impossible, but stay in the middle.
Speaker 4: But every now and again, you know, you could have
Speaker 4: seven thousand great comments in one comment. You're like this bastard. Okay,
Speaker 4: I didn't say it right. It was nineteen nineteen, not
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting. As you were saying how did
Speaker 2: I get through it? What I felt in my body
Speaker 2: was that you haven't that it chips away at your soul.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when people are mean at you, mean to you. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And it's not that you get over it. You're just like,
Speaker 4: it's a part of the business. So it's like it's
Speaker 4: like this, you guys, you walk in a room and
Speaker 4: you're and you are working, or say, if you have
Speaker 4: a for I'll give an example. Every time I go
Speaker 4: into a new environment, I have to pull out my
Speaker 4: resume again. And that's the part that's frustrating. It's not
Speaker 4: so much that it chips away at my soul. It's
Speaker 4: just exhausting to continue to pull out my resume. So
Speaker 4: if I'm working at CNN now and I am sitting
Speaker 4: next to whomever who's been there for thirty years, and
Speaker 4: they're looking at me like, you know, you have to
Speaker 4: start all over again, no matter how long you've been
Speaker 4: doing it, and our and for women, our our margin
Speaker 4: of era is less. Like men make mistakes all the time.
Speaker 4: I used to sit next to you. You'd say names
Speaker 4: wrong every day. Let me say a name wrong. It's
Speaker 4: the end of the world, you know. But the reality
Speaker 4: is that our room to make mistakes is like, it's
Speaker 4: so slim. It's so slim, and so we're held to
Speaker 4: a different standard and so it's exhausting.
Speaker 3: That code switch is so real.
Speaker 4: That girl, it's like, you're like, okay. I hope that
Speaker 4: it changes eventually. I would love to get on here
Speaker 4: and tell you guys that here's the bright side of it.
Speaker 4: The bright side for me, if we were talking about
Speaker 4: the the right side for me is that I have
Speaker 4: learned to respond better and that it doesn't sit in
Speaker 4: my spirit and and I don't take it personal.
Speaker 2: I also heard that you like affirmations.
Speaker 4: Yes, I love affirmations.
Speaker 1: Can you give us some words today?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: You know. I think you ladies seem to be pretty centered.
Speaker 4: I don't know where you are in your lives, are
Speaker 4: professionally or personally, but I think the one affirmation I
Speaker 4: said this earlier, I want you all to really embrace
Speaker 4: that you you deserve the pay, You deserve to be
Speaker 4: comfortable with compliments. You deserve to be sitting at the table,
Speaker 4: owning the table. And I tell my friends that all
Speaker 4: the time, you deserve a good man, You deserve a
Speaker 4: good partner. You do because you work hard. You wouldn't
Speaker 4: be in this position. You wouldn't show up every day,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't try to do the thing. So you deserve
Speaker 4: as one of my favorite affirmations. And then also one
Speaker 4: of the affirmations that I have on my refrigerator right now,
Speaker 4: I got out of this relationship and I really love
Speaker 4: this guy, like I thought that we were going to
Speaker 4: get married, and I've spen the rest of our lives
Speaker 4: together and he was so wonderful in so many ways,
Speaker 4: but he didn't like himself and I and when you
Speaker 4: don't like yourself, it's hard for you to really be
Speaker 4: happy and like other people. So in my inner circle,
Speaker 4: one of the affirmations that I say, I only surround
Speaker 4: myself with people who like and or love themselves because
Speaker 4: that way they can be that way with you. And then,
Speaker 4: last but not least, be okay with change, Like I
Speaker 4: change all the time. I'm not just one thing, and
Speaker 4: so I like to change, you know, move to New
Speaker 4: York as a change.
Speaker 3: You're giving me the I Carrie, I have one final
Speaker 3: question for you. You mentioned that you love change. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm the same way. What era are you in right now?
Speaker 4: Oh, such a good question, Simon. The era of my
Speaker 4: life professionally and personally is only doing what I want
Speaker 4: to do. And what I mean by that is now
Speaker 4: I'm looking at it like I'm making decisions for the
Speaker 4: rest of my life. I'm not gonna waste my time
Speaker 4: doing this anymore. I think for so long I spent
Speaker 4: time trying to please others or be what I'm supposed
Speaker 4: to be for others, or what people think I am,
Speaker 4: and not wanting people to see any of my skeletons
Speaker 4: if you will. But I'm like, oh no, that's fine.
Speaker 4: I'm fine, I'm great. I deserve I am who I am.
Speaker 4: If you get it, grit, get on board. If you
Speaker 4: don't get it, that's fine too. There's a freedom that
Speaker 4: comes with I will be okay, I got this, And
Speaker 4: there's a freedom that comes with that, a real, true freedom.
Speaker 4: And so I'm aspiring to the freedom of just being
Speaker 4: my full self. But right now I'm doing what I want,
Speaker 4: and I'm not necessarily my full self always, but I
Speaker 4: am doing what I want.
Speaker 1: You're in your I deserve era, you deserve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you deserve it all. Carrie.
Speaker 4: Just good luck and you deserve.
Speaker 1: Thank you so sweet.
Speaker 3: You're welcome, Carrie to you. Mpia is a broadcast journalist,
Speaker 3: host and storyteller. Listen to our podcast Naked with Carrie
Speaker 3: Champion wherever you get your podcasts. That's it for today's show. Tomorrow,
Speaker 3: we have multi hyphen it Jamila Jamil here. She's going
Speaker 3: to tell us all about her activism, what it looks
Speaker 3: like to be a feminist in progress, and her passion
Speaker 3: for speaking up against injustice.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
Speaker 3: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2: And I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's ro Ba.
Speaker 3: Y see you tomorrow, folks,