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Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody. I'm Jamel Hill and welcome to

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Speaker 1: politics and iHeart podcast and Unbothered network production. Time to

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Speaker 1: get spolitical. My first two years as a professional sports reporter,

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Speaker 1: I primarily covered women's sports. I was working at the

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Speaker 1: News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the paper

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Speaker 1: made the bold decision to ride the wave of women's sports. Now,

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Speaker 1: this was nineteen ninety seven. The newspaper's decision to dedicate

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Speaker 1: a reporter me to covering primarily women's sports was fairly uncommon.

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Speaker 1: At the time. Female athletes generated very little media coverage.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety six, though, was an undeniably shape shifting year

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Speaker 1: for women's sports, and the News of Rebserver had the

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Speaker 1: foresight to understand that women deserved more coverage. In ninety six,

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Speaker 1: the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, and female athletes

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Speaker 1: were the stars of the games. Women's soccer debuted as

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Speaker 1: an Olympic sport, and the US women's soccer team took

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Speaker 1: home the first gold medal.

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Speaker 2: It's over United States Test one way, first ever hold

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Speaker 2: that a women's soucker two one over chine Off.

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Speaker 1: The US women's gymnastics team celebrated as first team gold

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Speaker 1: medal with a group that came to be known as

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Speaker 1: the Magnificent Seven.

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Speaker 3: Up until the Vaults, it looked like the Americans would

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Speaker 3: be a lot.

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Speaker 2: Her first goal nine point one.

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Speaker 1: Sixteen not high enough.

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Speaker 3: A couple of things at stake here. It's drug scores big.

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Speaker 3: She will not only win the team goal, but she

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Speaker 3: will advance to the individual all around. Her teammate Mochiani

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Speaker 3: will not. She knows what to do. She will go

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Speaker 3: and she is ready. Karen's drug is hurt. She is

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Speaker 3: hurt badly right well, Tad, we saw her lipping after

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Speaker 3: the first ball. She has either twisted her ankle or

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Speaker 3: or something worse. She hurt herself on the first ball.

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Speaker 3: Probably the last thing she should have done was the

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Speaker 3: ball to again.

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Speaker 1: But she did and now she.

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Speaker 3: Isn't a lot of band. We have got to find

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Speaker 3: out if she's nine seven one tone. She has done it.

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Speaker 1: And the US women's national basketball team solidified the future

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Speaker 1: of professional women's basketball in America with a dominant Olympic

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Speaker 1: run in which they won eight games by an average

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Speaker 1: of twenty nine points and a then record crowd of

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Speaker 1: nearly thirty four thousand fans in the Georgia Dome witnessed

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Speaker 1: them obliterate Australia in the gold medal game. Some mendous explained, they're.

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Speaker 3: On their faces, the capacity crowd here at the Georgia Dome,

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Speaker 3: the final seconds, there's the buzzard. What's official? The United

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Speaker 3: States says that women's basketball team.

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Speaker 1: In the world, but the women accomplished in Atlanta was

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Speaker 1: yet another example of women having a watershed moment and

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Speaker 1: proving that as long as they gave us greatness, we

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Speaker 1: were going to watch. And now twenty twenty four is

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Speaker 1: proving to be another watershed year for women's sports. This

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Speaker 1: year has been the year of the female athlete from

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Speaker 1: the women in the College Basketball National Championship Game outrating

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Speaker 1: the men for the first time in history, to Caitlin

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Speaker 1: Clark's excellence driving the WNBA to new heights, to the

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Speaker 1: women powering this country at the Paris Olympics, to the

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Speaker 1: National Women's Soccer League also enjoying a record year in

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Speaker 1: viewership and attendance. Jane McManus, an adjunct professor at NYU,

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Speaker 1: columnist and author of the upcoming book Fast Track, which

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Speaker 1: is about the surging business of women's sports, believes this

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Speaker 1: latest moment in women's sports is in line with what

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Speaker 1: we've already seen.

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Speaker 4: This is actually a process that started a long time ago,

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Speaker 4: and there's a lot of a lot that has held

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Speaker 4: women's sports back as much as there have been people

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Speaker 4: now putting energy into the space. But yeah, of course

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Speaker 4: you go back to nineteen seventy two seventy three had

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Speaker 4: a couple of things happened at that time time. You

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Speaker 4: had Billy Jean King, of course, the Battle of the Sexes,

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Speaker 4: beating Bobby Riggs, and just very visibly being a woman

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Speaker 4: who could beat a man in a one on one

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Speaker 4: sporting contest. I think there were a lot of people

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Speaker 4: who didn't think that was possible. Then you will said,

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Speaker 4: Title nine the year before was passed, and of course

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Speaker 4: Title nine was never really originally meant to be about

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Speaker 4: sports or about women playing sports. It was more about

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Speaker 4: educational opportunities in institutions of higher learning. So but of

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Speaker 4: course once you actually read it, it does include sports.

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Speaker 4: There's nothing about it that excludes sports. So that created

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Speaker 4: a lot of opportunities as well.

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Speaker 1: The investment in women's sports has largely been more stopped

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Speaker 1: than start. Regardless of the number of times women's sports

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Speaker 1: has proven to be a viable product. As much as

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Speaker 1: you might be tempted to believe that the underinvestment in

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Speaker 1: women's sports is just the result of women's sports not

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Speaker 1: being as interesting or dynamic as men's, history shows that

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Speaker 1: more often than not, the lack of investment was entirely purposeful.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, Congress enacted Title nine, one of

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Speaker 1: the most significant pieces of legislation this country has seen

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Speaker 1: in the last fifty years. The law was pretty simple.

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Speaker 1: It prevented sex discrimination in any educational program or activity

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Speaker 1: receiving federal funding. But why was Title nine even necessary?

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Speaker 1: Once upon a time, people believed that if women participated

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Speaker 1: in sports, it would hurt their reproductive organs true story.

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Speaker 1: They were also worried women would become too masculine, and

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Speaker 1: they had these other crazy notions about how women would

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Speaker 1: be impacted by participating in sports. Consider this history lesson

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Speaker 1: from Kelly Harper, the former head coach of Tennessee women's basketball.

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Speaker 5: So, during the time Title non legislation was being debated

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Speaker 5: in Congress, high school girls in the state of Tennessee

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Speaker 5: played a modified version of basketball.

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Speaker 1: The game was six on six.

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Speaker 5: Players were not allowed to cross the half fort nine.

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Speaker 5: You either were a defensive player or an offensive player,

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Speaker 5: and the game was basically three on three half court

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Speaker 5: basketball if the ball wasn't on your end of the court.

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Speaker 5: While this version of basketball was played because many felt

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Speaker 5: five on five was too strenuous for girls, the six

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Speaker 5: on six game was widely popular in America.

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Speaker 1: And Gordon, a nineteen fifty nine graduate of Harvard who

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Speaker 1: played women's basketball there, recalled this incident to the Harvard

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Speaker 1: Gazette that took place when the Harvard women were playing

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Speaker 1: against Pembroke College. Bain said, we used to play half

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Speaker 1: court basketball because it was thought that women couldn't run

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Speaker 1: from one end of the court to the other. We

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Speaker 1: hadn't finished a varsity game, and they said, sorry, it's

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Speaker 1: our court, so we walked off the court. That's the

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Speaker 1: way it was in those days. Now, Banin's story was

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Speaker 1: a common one. Female athletes were treated as an afterthought

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Speaker 1: and often had to deal with substandard equipment, facilities, and

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Speaker 1: overall treatment. Now, right before Title nine passed, only thirty

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Speaker 1: thousand women played college sports. In nineteen seventy one, three

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Speaker 1: point seven million boys were participating in high school sports,

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Speaker 1: compared to two hundred and ninety four thousand girls in

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Speaker 1: seventy one. Women's college sports were governed by the AIAW,

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Speaker 1: the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. It was women

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Speaker 1: led and women run. The league even managed to strike

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Speaker 1: deals with ESPN and NBC to broadcast all of its championships.

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Speaker 1: When Title nine passed, the NCAA didn't want anything to

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Speaker 1: do with women's sports. In fact, the NCAA filed a

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Speaker 1: bunch of lawsuits to try to avoid complying with Title knine.

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Speaker 1: But once they lost that battle, they had a new goal,

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Speaker 1: totally destroying the AIAW because they viewed the organization as

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Speaker 1: a threat. The NCAAA eventually wore the AIAW down through

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Speaker 1: legal challenges and by luring member institutions to its side,

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Speaker 1: But just like any good colonizer, they made sure that

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Speaker 1: the women knew their place, even though they spearheaded the takeover.

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Speaker 1: When the NCAA took over women's sports, ninety percent of

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Speaker 1: the teams were coached by women, and the majority of

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Speaker 1: the people overseeing those sports also were women. A little

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Speaker 1: over a decade after the NCAA took over, only half

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Speaker 1: of those teams were coached by women, and today among

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Speaker 1: the Power conferences there's only six women athletic directors. The

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Speaker 1: NCAA has had plenty of opportunities since taking over women's

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Speaker 1: sports to actually invest in boost it, but they mostly

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Speaker 1: chose not to. In nineteen eighty three, USC basketball legend

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Speaker 1: Shcheryl Miller made her debut on national television against Louisiana Tech.

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Speaker 1: The game aired on CBS and attracted nearly twelve million viewers.

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Speaker 1: Let's see here, a big star out of Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: who can draw that kind of attention kind of seems

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Speaker 1: like the perfect time to double down on women's basketball. Instead,

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Speaker 1: the NCUBA spent years prioritizing, promoting, and cultivating men's basketball,

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Speaker 1: resulting in the men's tournament being worth billions of dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's not just my opinion, but it's the findings of

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Speaker 1: a gender equity review commissioned by the nc DOUBLA. Now,

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Speaker 1: the reason the NCAA commissioned that review is because they

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Speaker 1: got put on blast in twenty twenty one when the

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Speaker 1: men's and women's tournaments took place in bubble environments because

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Speaker 1: of COVID. Thanks to former basketball players on a print,

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Speaker 1: we got an up close. Look at what the NCUBA

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Speaker 1: really thought about women.

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Speaker 6: I got something to show, y'all. So for the NCUBA

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Speaker 6: March Madness, the biggest tournament in college basketball for women,

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Speaker 6: this is our weight room. Let me show y'all the

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Speaker 6: men's weight room now in pictures of our weight room

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Speaker 6: got released versus the men's. NCUBA cannot with the statement

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Speaker 6: saying that it wasn't money, it was space that was

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Speaker 6: a problem.

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Speaker 1: Let me show y'all something else.

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Speaker 6: Here's our practice court, right, and then here's that weight room,

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Speaker 6: and then here's all this extra space. If you aren't

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Speaker 6: have said about this problem, then you're a part of it.

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Speaker 1: As Sadona said, it wasn't a money issue. ESPN was

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Speaker 1: paying the nc doublea hundreds of millions of dollars to

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Speaker 1: broadcast women's sports. They gave the women some bullshit equipment

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Speaker 1: simply because they could. That attitude has been pervasive in

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Speaker 1: the history of women's sports. It's not that women can't sell,

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Speaker 1: it's that the people in charge don't even try. Men's

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Speaker 1: sports often automatically received the benefit of the doubt when

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Speaker 1: it comes to investment. In two thousand and one, the

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Speaker 1: XFL debuted. It was the brainchild of Vence McMahon. Despite

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Speaker 1: being a completely unproven product out the gate, the XFL

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Speaker 1: had a fifty to fifty partnership with NBC. Their games

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Speaker 1: were broadcast across three networks, NBC, UPN, and TNN. After

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Speaker 1: generating huge ratings and a season opener, the ratings plummeted

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Speaker 1: and it was a bona fide money loser. That iteration

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Speaker 1: of the XFL lasted one year. When Duane the Rock

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Speaker 1: Johnson bought the XFL later on and attempted a comeback,

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Speaker 1: he lost sixty million dollars. The USFL and the XFL

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Speaker 1: have since merged. But the point is, despite losing a

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Speaker 1: ton of money, the investment is still there and the

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Speaker 1: games are being played on ABC, ESPN, and Fox. That

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Speaker 1: kind of investment, even with no return, is typical in

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Speaker 1: men's sports, and a lot of times those investments are

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Speaker 1: maintained because there is hope and belief that things will

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Speaker 1: eventually change. But women's sports don't often get that same

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Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt or receive that same energy. To

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Speaker 1: grow something, you have to keep investigating. Women are told

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Speaker 1: out the gate they aren't worth it, or and this

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Speaker 1: is my favorite, that it's their own fault they aren't

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Speaker 1: more successful. Yes, some have had the audacity to blame

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Speaker 1: women for why women's sports aren't Further along, a narrative

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Speaker 1: has been that if women became bigger fans of women's sports,

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Speaker 1: things would be different. Now. As it stands, about fifteen

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Speaker 1: percent of women watch women's sports on a daily or

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Speaker 1: weekly basis, compared to twenty three percent among men. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: there's a disparity, and the number of women supporting women's

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Speaker 1: sports should be higher, but men have been the primary

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Speaker 1: gatekeepers when it comes to women's sports, controlling the access,

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Speaker 1: the budget, and the media coverage. So blaming women for

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Speaker 1: structural barriers they didn't create, well, let's given pull yourself

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Speaker 1: up by the bootstraps. Women's sports were never a charity,

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Speaker 1: but that should be really clear now that they've reached

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Speaker 1: this important historic inflection point in their history. The expectation

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Speaker 1: is that by the end of this year, women's sports

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Speaker 1: will have generated over a billion dollars in revenue for

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Speaker 1: the first time in history. According to j McManus, there

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Speaker 1: is an entirely new business narrative being created around women's sports.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is something that Natie Rollinson talks about

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Speaker 4: she's you know, the chairperson at the Chicago Sky and

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Speaker 4: you know when she talks about this idea of value

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Speaker 4: and valuing yourself and really expecting more that you know,

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Speaker 4: she looks for investors, for example, who are not looking

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Speaker 4: at this as a five ZHO three C charity. She's

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Speaker 4: really looking for people who are you know, investing in

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Speaker 4: the long term and see the value in women's sport.

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Speaker 1: Like it or not, the best investment in sports right

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Speaker 1: now is women. I'm Jamelle Hill and I approve this message.

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Speaker 1: Coming up next someone who has won big by investing

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Speaker 1: in women's sports, and not just because of his own

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Speaker 1: personal morality, but because it's a money maker. He also

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Speaker 1: happens to have a fairly deep attachment to one of

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Speaker 1: the greatest athletes in history. Up next on his politics

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Speaker 1: Alexis on Hanny and senior entrepreneur and proud husband of

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Speaker 1: these Serena Williams. Alexis, I want to thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for joining the podcast, and right the top, I

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Speaker 1: want to make you think. I hope to make you

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Speaker 1: get your out. But this is a question I ask

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Speaker 1: every guest that appears on politics and that is named

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Speaker 1: the athlete or even the moment that made you love.

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Speaker 2: Sports Sean Taylor, And there was a moment. It was

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Speaker 2: Monday night football in Dallas, and it was the night

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Speaker 2: my mom was diagnosed with ternal brain cancer. And I

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Speaker 2: was in a bar watching this game with a buddy

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Speaker 2: of mine, my dad. My dad did we were getting

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Speaker 2: our but just whooked. Skins did not have a very

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Speaker 2: good offense back then, and I think we were down

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Speaker 2: thirteen to nothing and it was just an ugly game,

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Speaker 2: most scoring ugly, and and my dad turned it off

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Speaker 2: and he was just like, I can't I can't keep us.

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Speaker 2: Has been the worst possible day, right, I can't watch him.

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Speaker 2: But I stayed to the end. And there were a

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Speaker 2: couple of very very crucial plays, some deep balls from

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Speaker 2: Mark Brunel to Santana Moss almost back to back for touchdowns.

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Speaker 2: But what sealed the deal was my favorite player, Sean

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Speaker 2: with a crucial I think it was a third down stop,

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Speaker 2: it might have been a fourth down. The Cowboys were

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Speaker 2: just trying to get in field goal range, which would

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Speaker 2: have given them the win, and Patrick Creighton took this pass,

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Speaker 2: caught it. He took two maybe three steps. I'm being

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Speaker 2: picky now, but Sean just on loads on them, ball

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Speaker 2: pops out and I was ruling complete pass. Again. If

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Speaker 2: you watch it again, I'd argue it should have been

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Speaker 2: a fumble, which the Skins recovered, but that's fine, but

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Speaker 2: it still was incomplete pass and it was either third

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Speaker 2: down or fourth down. But it was just defining. And

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Speaker 2: you know, what was easily the worst day of my

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Speaker 2: life at that point was fixed at least for the

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Speaker 2: day because of Shawn's talents, because the whole team coming

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Speaker 2: through with this upset last minute, it just felt symbolically,

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Speaker 2: it felt God just life changing. It was a weird

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Speaker 2: thing because, yeah, how the team performed on that Monday

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Speaker 2: night against an art tribal obviously had nothing to do

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Speaker 2: with how my mom was going to deal with this

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Speaker 2: brain cancer. But it felt like as dark as it got,

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Speaker 2: there was still light. There was still a reason to

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Speaker 2: be hopeful. And you know that night, you know, Skins

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Speaker 2: came up on top of Manders Now came up on

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Speaker 2: top up and for the next three four years, my

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Speaker 2: mom fought like hell. The cancer ultimately one but it

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Speaker 2: was so inspiring. And that's when I was already a

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Speaker 2: Sean Taylor fan. And like I said, it wasn't for

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Speaker 2: the touchdowns. So I mean, Tanna had two great touchdowns,

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Speaker 2: but I always had I always like, maybe it's because

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Speaker 2: I played defense in high school, but I always liked

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Speaker 2: the guys on the d more. They were, you know,

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Speaker 2: less flashy. They're not they're not there putting up points

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Speaker 2: every day. They're just doing the work. And yeah, that

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Speaker 2: made me fall over sports.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess I don't know if you've thought

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Speaker 1: about it in this terms, in terms of, you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how often you've shared that story, but

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Speaker 1: you know, you mentioned the fact that you lost somebody

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Speaker 1: dear to you and your mother, but obviously Sean Taylor

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Speaker 1: also not here anymore. So to have that connective tissue

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Speaker 1: there with such a very specific sports memory with two

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Speaker 1: people who aren't there, I don't know if you've ever

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Speaker 1: thought about it in those terms.

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Speaker 2: I definitely have. And he was also born eighty three,

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Speaker 2: so he's the same age, would have been in the

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Speaker 2: same age as me. I now have two daughters. He

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Speaker 2: obviously had one, and it just, I don't know, you

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Speaker 2: find you find ways to find the connection right as

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Speaker 2: a fan to these players, and yeah, it's a it's

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Speaker 2: such a strange thing because you grow up thinking of

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Speaker 2: it as almost like a religion. Like you, I grew

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Speaker 2: up indoctrinated by my father. He would be very disappointed

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Speaker 2: in me if I became a Cowboys fan, for instance,

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Speaker 2: or any other team fan in the NFL. And even

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Speaker 2: when I stepped away from supporting the team for those

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Speaker 2: last once Olympia was born, I was like, I can't

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Speaker 2: do this to her because at the time the team

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Speaker 2: was still owned by Dan Snyder, and I was just like,

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Speaker 2: I can't. I don't want to indoctrinate you in this

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Speaker 2: because it's so against my values at this point, like

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Speaker 2: I just can't. Now obviously new ownership, I'm back. It's

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Speaker 2: great to be back, and at the timing, it's been

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Speaker 2: pretty swift turnaround. I we'll see it still early. But

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Speaker 2: it's so funny because this is a we're talking about

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Speaker 2: a kids game that adults play and at least the

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Speaker 2: men get paid a lot of money for for now

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Speaker 2: the wer War two. But it's just I think it'll

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Speaker 2: be one of the last parts of American society and

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Speaker 2: culture that will still be thriving in a big way

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Speaker 2: even ten years from now, as technology as AI, as

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Speaker 2: all these things continue to get better. And better and better.

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Speaker 2: There's I think, going to be even more reason why

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Speaker 2: we will love sport, and we'll make these connections between

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Speaker 2: what these humans do on the field and our own lives.

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Speaker 2: That gets us fired up, It makes us happy, it

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Speaker 2: makes us sad, it makes us angry, and at its best,

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Speaker 2: I think it can be a tremendous unifier for folks

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Speaker 2: and really powerful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really happy for Washington fans because you all

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Speaker 1: have been through a lot. Just mentioned the horrible ownership

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Speaker 1: of Dan Snyder, who was definitely one of the worst

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Speaker 1: owners in sports for a lot of reasons, most of

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Speaker 1: which did not have to do with the sometimes product

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Speaker 1: that they put it on the feet. It was for

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Speaker 1: a lot of other Yeah, he was just seemingly coming

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Speaker 1: off like a very horrible human being. But as you mentioned,

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Speaker 1: that's all in the past. But you know, you mentioned

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Speaker 1: something there about kind of alluding to what sports is

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Speaker 1: going to look like in the future, and you, in

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Speaker 1: the present are making a monstrous investment in women's sports

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Speaker 1: because it seems like you have not only understood what

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Speaker 1: the future in sports may entail, you've understood that women

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Speaker 1: are a huge part of this. And when I look

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Speaker 1: at the course of your career as a financier, as

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Speaker 1: somebody who's in tech, you have been able to master

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Speaker 1: putting your money behind the causes that you care about

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Speaker 1: in a way that's very tricky for a lot of

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Speaker 1: people in your position. So what was it in that

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Speaker 1: inspired you to use your money in ways that you

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Speaker 1: feel like, as you know, Pollyannish as it may sound,

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Speaker 1: to make the.

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Speaker 2: World look all of my every investment I make is

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Speaker 2: first and foremost and investment right, the business matters above all.

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Speaker 2: And I want to show in all these investments in

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Speaker 2: women's sports, like don't get it twisted, Like yes, obviously

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Speaker 2: I'm married to Serena the Goat, Yes I have two daughters,

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Speaker 2: But the number one driving force behind all these investments,

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Speaker 2: starting with Angel City back in twenty nineteen, has been

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Speaker 2: business opportunity. And sure those things matter to me too,

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Speaker 2: but the business has to come first and foremost. And

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Speaker 2: what I found when I rage tweeted back in March

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Speaker 2: and nineteen about how undervalued women's in this case soccer

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Speaker 2: was in the United States, I came at it from

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Speaker 2: a business standpoint, and I knew that these there were

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Speaker 2: women on this World Cup team in twenty nineteen that

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Speaker 2: I knew about, even though I wasn't a fan of

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Speaker 2: the sport, and that showed me that there was stardom

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Speaker 2: right So Alex Morgan, Megan Rapino. Now there's a reason

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Speaker 2: I got a Morgan jersey up here signed. That was

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Speaker 2: the That was the jersey she signed for me, technically

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Speaker 2: for Olympia when she came down in March and nineteen

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Speaker 2: in response to my tweet threat when I said I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna buy an n TOWSL team who can help me?

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Speaker 2: And she volunteered it. I got hired a car to

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Speaker 2: bring her down and I just took notes for like

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Speaker 2: three hours, asking her all these pretty naive questions about

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Speaker 2: what was the state of women's soccer in all the

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Speaker 2: areas where it could be better. And that convinced me.

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Speaker 2: And then that you obviously led me to start in

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Speaker 2: Angel City and funding it, and I think that was

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Speaker 2: the beginning of a realization. And believe me, this was

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Speaker 2: one of the most contentious investments I had ever made.

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Speaker 2: I had men and women investors tell me that this

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Speaker 2: would never be successful, that women's sports was you know,

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Speaker 2: at best, you could point to a couple teams that

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Speaker 2: were worth I don't know at the time, maybe tens

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Speaker 2: of millions of dollars max, and that there could never

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Speaker 2: be a billion dollar women's professional sports team franchise. And

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Speaker 2: it's funny because in this world of early stage investing,

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Speaker 2: you know, I've been very fortunate, right sitting aside creating

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Speaker 2: and turning around Reddit, I've been the first investor in

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Speaker 2: companies like coinbase. So back in twenty twelve, like Brian Armstrong,

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Speaker 2: brilliant founder and CEO, had this vision that people would

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Speaker 2: want to transact this magical Internet money Bitcoin as often

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Speaker 2: as as potentially USD, and that there would need to

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Speaker 2: be like a JP Morgan Chase for crypto. And in

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Speaker 2: my industry, someone advocating for magic Internet money to one

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Speaker 2: day be worth billions or trillions of dollars is a

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Speaker 2: very reasonable pitch. It's it's bold, it's ambitious. But you

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Speaker 2: can sit there and be like, okay, yeah, and obviously

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Speaker 2: I did well investing in that, But you do the

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Speaker 2: same thing around women's sports, and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: it's like whoa, whoa, whoa hold on, now, that's just nuts, right,

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Speaker 2: there's no way, and it really it disappointed me. But

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Speaker 2: when I hear that I have to check my assumption

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Speaker 2: to sort of re underwrite again, but usually it gives

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Speaker 2: me even more resolve that what I'm doing is so

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Speaker 2: so so fundamentally right and low and behold. Right, Angel

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Speaker 2: City is now the most viable professional women's sports team

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Speaker 2: in the world, three hundred million dollars in value, and

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Speaker 2: that you know that team. It was a million dollar

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Speaker 2: expansion fee that I paid in twenty nineteen technically early

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty, so not bad for four years, right, And

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Speaker 2: I think the sky is the limit there. But then

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Speaker 2: my experiences of the NWSL, when I showed up at

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Speaker 2: that first Board of Governors meeting it, I met every

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Speaker 2: other owner and every single one of them had the

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Speaker 2: same point of view, which was no one really cares

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Speaker 2: about women's soccer. And I'd always ask my favorite question ask,

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Speaker 2: and it's the scariest question for some people was why

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Speaker 2: and and they'd kind of roll back to, well, like,

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Speaker 2: no one cares, right, no one watches the games, there's

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Speaker 2: only a few thousand people in the stadium. The one

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Speaker 2: city where it can work is Portland because it's you know,

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Speaker 2: soccer town, USA, and it's exception, not the rule. And

432
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 2: I said, well, why and and well, no one wants.

433
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 2: No one wants to watch. But I'm like a lot

434
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 2: of people seem like they want to watch every four

435
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 2: years for the World Cup, those same athletes are still playing.

436
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 2: Maybe it's because people don't know about it. Maybe it's

437
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 2: because owners aren't investing the money into it. And the

438
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,359
Speaker 2: thing that I heard overwhelmingly was, you know, but this

439
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 2: is a charity thing, like I have a men's team

440
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,679
Speaker 2: that I really care about. This is you know, it's

441
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 2: because I have a granddaughter who likes soccer, or it's

442
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:48,640
Speaker 2: and it was this vicious trap. And some of these

443
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 2: people were well intentioned. Now there were others who weren't,

444
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 2: and it was it was very simple with them. I

445
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 2: was just like, listen, like, I don't get out of

446
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:58,639
Speaker 2: bed unless I'm trying to build Literally, I said this,

447
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 2: unless I'm trying to build a billion dollar business, like

448
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 2: that's I come from tech. That's our bar. So I

449
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 2: wouldn't be here starting a team if I didn't think

450
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 2: it'd be worth at least a billion dollars. And if

451
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 2: you don't think that, that's fine, just move along, right,

452
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 2: We'll bring other folks in who are building enterprise value

453
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 2: in the long term, and that's that's fine, it's not.

454
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be for you, But that's that's

455
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,959
Speaker 2: what gets me out of bed. And what was wild

456
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 2: and I think what was and as I spent more

457
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 2: time here, that I've come to find is there were

458
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 2: even well intentioned people who came at this from a

459
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 2: charity standpoint, and even that mired women's sports for so

460
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,239
Speaker 2: so long, because even well intentioned folks are like, oh,

461
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 2: this is just a thing we're doing because of quality,

462
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 2: because of feminism. Because like, even again, even the well

463
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 2: intentioned folks, I think by by it. And that's why

464
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,439
Speaker 2: I always make it so so so clear all this

465
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,439
Speaker 2: I'm doing, whether it's Angel City, whether it's off season,

466
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 2: whether it's Athlos, whether it's been the Sports Bra, whether

467
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 2: it's been Together, which was an early investor in too,

468
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: Like this is all for the investment opportunity first and foremost.

469
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 2: I think there's a potential for great, great, great returns,

470
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,080
Speaker 2: and yet it also aligns with my worldview. Sure, but

471
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 2: that's not first. And I think what's changed now, even

472
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,800
Speaker 2: for years layers, you're starting to see that shift. But

473
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,120
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what you you get under the hood,

474
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 2: and really quickly realize those that mindset alone at inception

475
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 2: changes the DNA of everything else down the road, or

476
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 2: that that fundamental DNA at the start has an impact

477
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,680
Speaker 2: in every other decision going forward. It affects the types

478
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 2: of owners that get into the leagues, It affects the

479
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 2: type of people who get hired at the leagues. It

480
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 2: affects the decisions those people at the leagues make. It

481
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 2: affects and it just compounds and compounds, And thankfully I

482
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 2: had a front row seat to the most powerful counter

483
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 2: narrative in the world, which was Serena and Venus. Where

484
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,920
Speaker 2: you have a sport in America biggest market I think

485
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 2: still biggest sports market in the world for a single country,

486
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 2: where the sport of tennis, which everyone would agree is

487
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 2: a tier one sport, global major sport. Is more popular

488
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 2: in the women's game than the men's. More Americans watch

489
00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 2: the US Open final. Check it every year. ESPN reports

490
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 2: it more Americans watch the women's final than the men

491
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 2: and it doesn't even need to have an American woman

492
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:29,120
Speaker 2: in it. More Americans watch the women and even if

493
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 2: it was equal, that would still be a story. But

494
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 2: like it's not. And so my favorite question why because

495
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 2: decades ago Billy Jean King forced pay equity. Once that

496
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 2: pay equity happened, now all of a sudden, let's just

497
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 2: use the US Opening as an example. It's the biggest

498
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 2: tournament here in the US. Right, They're like, okay, well,

499
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 2: we got to pay everyone equally. They're all here at

500
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:51,639
Speaker 2: the same time. We might as well market them at

501
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 2: the same time. Since we got to put butts in seats.

502
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 2: Maybe you come for a women's match, but really, we're

503
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 2: going to get you in. I think this was their mindset. Really,

504
00:27:58,440 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 2: we know you're going to come for the men's match,

505
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 2: but like, let's get you a ticket here too. And

506
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 2: again you're just thinking about getting butts and seats, selling merch,

507
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 2: selling food and bev And then along comes generational talent,

508
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,679
Speaker 2: and Serena and Venus are so great, and they're so

509
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 2: great in a space that is so not used to

510
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 2: them that folks can't stop talking about them, Folks can't

511
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 2: stop looking the way a whole ton of new fans

512
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 2: become fans of the sport because of them. And now

513
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 2: they've been given us Tennis has been given the greatest

514
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,679
Speaker 2: gift they ever could have dreamed. Right, and now all

515
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,400
Speaker 2: of a sudden, again Americans love greatness. You've got more

516
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 2: Americans showing up to see the greatness of the women

517
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 2: than the greatness of the men. Because again I love

518
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 2: Andy Roddock. You know, there are a bunch of other

519
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 2: great American men, but they just were not capital g

520
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 2: great in the way of Serena and Venus. And in

521
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 2: this country, boy do we love greatness. And so now

522
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 2: you have a sport where because all those things happened,

523
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 2: and again shout out to the og Billy Jean King,

524
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 2: you have the brands saying, well, yeah, these are multimillionaire

525
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 2: athletes who are defining culture, certainly in fashion. Who are

526
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 2: there was no Internet to break in the same way.

527
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 2: But if Serena and Venus had come up in the

528
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 2: age of social media, you better believe they would have

529
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: broken the Internet like weekly. And so brands are like, well,

530
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: we want to be where the attention is. We want

531
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 2: to be aligned with greatness. Here's the greatness, there's the attention, Like,

532
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 2: let's sign up. And now, all of a sudden, tennis

533
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 2: is the one sport where consistently you'll find multi multi

534
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 2: millionaire women athletes. Because all those things had to happen,

535
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 2: and then I'm just still sitting here in twenty nineteen going, well,

536
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 2: why the hell doesn't happen to other places? And you know,

537
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 2: soccer was the first I've been. I've been if I

538
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 2: had more hours in the day, I was tweeting about

539
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:54,960
Speaker 2: what an opportunity basketball was about four years ago, and

540
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 2: if I had more hours in the day, I would

541
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 2: have leaned in more on a w team back then.

542
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: But because I was like, I remember that, I remember

543
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: when you were tweeting about it, and you know, I'm

544
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 1: really glad that you made such a critical distinction. I

545
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 1: think when it comes to investment in women's sports, which

546
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: is the charity mindset versus the investment mindset, and at

547
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 1: least in my years of reporting on women's athletes and leagues,

548
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: is that I find that a lot of the times

549
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: the infrastructure is shall we say, lacking, not because it

550
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,320
Speaker 1: is unable to, not because they can't afford to, but

551
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,720
Speaker 1: simply because that charity mindset extends to how the athletes

552
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: are treated period. I bring up a couple of years

553
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 1: ago when the NCAA women's basketball players brought to the

554
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,480
Speaker 1: attention through TikTok of you know, during COVID, right, they

555
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:47,120
Speaker 1: where everybody's under the bubble, and they show what the

556
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: women's wait room look like versus what the men's and listen,

557
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 1: the women are on like a you know, two three

558
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars deal through ESPN. They can afford some

559
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: dumb bills, all right, but they treated them that way

560
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: because they could not, because they could not afford it.

561
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: And so as somebody who is in an investment strategist

562
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: and sees these inequities, you know up close, how much

563
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: is that kind of mindset holding back women's sports from

564
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: blossoming financially and providing.

565
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 2: That tweet went viral, and I attacked and and asked

566
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 2: the NC double A. I said, straight up, tweets are

567
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 2: still there. I'm pretty sure. I said, listen, if you're

568
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 2: not going to invest in the women of college basketball,

569
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 2: like just sell it, Like can I buy this tournament

570
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:39,239
Speaker 2: from you?

571
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 1: At the time women, you were ready to buy Women's

572
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: Best at the time, they woun't even let women say

573
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 1: March Madness because they believe that brand is too valuable.

574
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 2: To let the women use. And in my argument, I said, listen,

575
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 2: if you just and again I come from the internet

576
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 2: as the red of guy. I I I understand the

577
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 2: value of traditional media for sure, but I lived sixteen

578
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 2: years of my life building in the free market of attention,

579
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 2: which is ruthless. Like you know, you could point to

580
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 2: the incumbents saying, well, like, we're not putting women's college

581
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 2: basketball on television because no one wants to watch it,

582
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 2: and because they've never put it on television in the

583
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 2: past or rarely given at the platform and the marketing,

584
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 2: they have numbers that justify quote unquote that no one

585
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 2: wants to watch it. And it's this vicious circular trap.

586
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 2: But on social media, where I believe attention has to

587
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 2: be earned every minute, it's not because some old guy decided, Hey,

588
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 2: this is going to go at the five o'clock slot.

589
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 2: Not to make fun of old guys, but all white

590
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 2: guys tend to run these things. It's because in the

591
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 2: free market of attention, people have chosen to follow the

592
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 2: athletes they care about. And if you looked back then

593
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 2: and I put this, I pointed this out the top

594
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 2: twenty athletes in college basketball, the top twenty women crushed

595
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 2: the top twenty men when it came to followers and engagement.

596
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 2: And my point to them was you're clearly messing up

597
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:08,479
Speaker 2: because in the free market of attention, more people are

598
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,760
Speaker 2: paying attention to the women Instagram is ubiquitous. They're not

599
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 2: hitting follow because they you know, because of feminism, or

600
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 2: because they they want to do the right thing, or

601
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 2: because it's a charity project. They're hitting follow because they

602
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 2: care more and there's an audience there that they had

603
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 2: to earn that isn't showing up for any other reason

604
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 2: other than they care. They're interested, they have their attention,

605
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 2: and if you just put them on TVs and market them,

606
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 2: you've got the data right there. Folks are going to

607
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 2: show up. And so I mean.

608
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: It funny how that works, right, It's funny how that

609
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: I give you invest and how that goes along. I

610
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 1: want to ask you something because like you brought up

611
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 1: your mom earlier, and from what I've read, you did

612
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 1: a like a personal blog post that I read some

613
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:56,479
Speaker 1: time ago that or you talked about what it felt

614
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: like for you to be able to share some of

615
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 1: your bild successes from Reddit with your with your mom.

616
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 1: You became a millionaire at twenty three years old. What

617
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 1: was that time like for you?

618
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 2: It was it was definitely surreal because to be. I

619
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 2: mean literally, okay, hold on, we sold So I sold

620
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:25,759
Speaker 2: Reddit two thousand and six October. Yeah, I sort of

621
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 2: just remember twenty two is at twenty three. Wow, and

622
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 2: you know, to make more money for sixteen months worth

623
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 2: of work than my parents would make their entire working lives.

624
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 2: Was already kind of crazy, like that didn't feel right.

625
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 2: It felt like I had gotten away with something. And

626
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 2: at the same time, you know, this point Mom would

627
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 2: have been diagnosed, was already starting her treatments chemo and

628
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,320
Speaker 2: everything else. So at the same time, it was incredibly

629
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 2: liberating because I knew, hey, you know, she got to

630
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 2: hear that phone call from me letting her know at

631
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 2: all happened, money was in the bank. You know, her

632
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 2: belief in me was worth it. It paid off, and it

633
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 2: did give me some of the financial security to be

634
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 2: able to like spend that time and also just know

635
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 2: I could get her the best possible care, et cetera,

636
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 2: et cetera. But it was a very surreal feeling, and

637
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 2: I think the best thing that came out of it

638
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:26,880
Speaker 2: for me was being at such a young age blessed

639
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 2: with this windfall and knowing just knowing what I should

640
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 2: be thinking about what I should be caring about, what

641
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,959
Speaker 2: I should be prioritizing, and it was clear you see

642
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:43,200
Speaker 2: someone going through that, you know very quickly what matters

643
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:45,760
Speaker 2: in life, when you know, you get to see someone

644
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 2: basically deciding how they're going to spend their final years

645
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,800
Speaker 2: and it's never about stuff. It is it is about people,

646
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 2: and it's about experiences with those people. And those are

647
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 2: the two things that she was optimizing for. And so

648
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 2: to come into that wealth and then also just be

649
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,359
Speaker 2: be fortunate to keep, you know, keep building, keep finding

650
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 2: success as a inmester in a company builder. All these

651
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,879
Speaker 2: years later, I feel like I've avoided a lot of

652
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 2: the pain that even peers of mine encountered when they

653
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 2: found wealth and didn't really have any kind of grounding

654
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 2: for it. And that's probably, frankly, that's probably the best

655
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,839
Speaker 2: gift she ever could have given me, was that perspective.

656
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 2: But it definitely, it definitely felt surreal. And for all

657
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 2: the milestones I've had since, obviously coming back to Reddit,

658
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 2: turning it around I p O and then just professionally

659
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,719
Speaker 2: as an investor in building seven seven six, there there

660
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 2: are so many times I wish I could call her,

661
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 2: or I wish you could be there to see that

662
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:45,439
Speaker 2: debut of Athlos. But you know, then there's the personal stuff,

663
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 2: which obviously which even more she could have been a

664
00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 2: part of, but gives you perspective, that's for sure, and

665
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 2: that that that I'm grateful for.

666
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about Athles Athlo since she brought it up. Athlos,

667
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 1: which means you held a spectacular track event in New York.

668
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,239
Speaker 1: My good friend Carrie Champion was a part of it.

669
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 2: The show.

670
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:13,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was running the shows as the host. You

671
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:17,719
Speaker 1: had Megan thee Stallion and you know Shonda Rhymes. It

672
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: was a star studed event and I haven't even gotten

673
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,440
Speaker 1: to the athletes that were competing in it. Gabby Thomas,

674
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 1: who a lot of people watched her in this past Olympics.

675
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:30,840
Speaker 1: Brown Like just a really tremendous event because once again,

676
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: the philosophy you just talked about, you took to put

677
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: in an action, which is little. So let me get

678
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:37,799
Speaker 1: this straight. Every four years we're all in the track

679
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 1: and field. I've covered two Olympics track. The Olympics do

680
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: not start until track and field starts. It is a

681
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,240
Speaker 1: marquee event. As much as I know people love the

682
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: US team, yet it is track and field is the event,

683
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: and you found a way to sort of capture that enthusiasm,

684
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:58,280
Speaker 1: that interest and bring it to New York. What made

685
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 1: you decide, Hey, I want to push my chips to

686
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: the center of the table and go all in on

687
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,719
Speaker 1: bringing track and field to the state too.

688
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 2: Yes, so I clearly have never run track. I am

689
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 2: not a fan of track before probably a year ago,

690
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 2: I would not have considered myself one. But again, it

691
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 2: was a lot of pattern matching, just like twenty nineteen.

692
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 2: You know, I wasn't a fan of women's soccer. I

693
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 2: wasn't a fan of soccer period, but I knew the

694
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 2: American women were great and there was a legacy of greatness.

695
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 2: I knew that every four years we were all paying attention,

696
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 2: we're all excited, and then they seemed to disappear. And

697
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 2: I knew a couple of the stars. Again, even when

698
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 2: I didn't follow the sport, they had transcended the sport

699
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:45,040
Speaker 2: and those were those are the key ingredients. So imagine

700
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:49,160
Speaker 2: me a year ago, looking ahead towards the Olympics, thinking, well, gosh,

701
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 2: I already know some of these stars. Right at this point,

702
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,840
Speaker 2: you know, Shakerri had gone viral a handful of times,

703
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 2: Gabby as well, and I knew that the American women

704
00:38:56,719 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 2: had a legacy of greatness, right. I mean even Serena

705
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 2: was wearing Flo Joe inspired tennis outfits. And again, I

706
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 2: know I can market greatness to Americans. We love it,

707
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 2: and if you have this legacy of it, and especially

708
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 2: when you have larger than life stars already in the

709
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 2: sport like we do on the American side. In particular,

710
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 2: I thought, God, okay, there's a there there. And then

711
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:24,479
Speaker 2: I did the same thing I did four years ago.

712
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 2: I started calling all the best athletes I could, and

713
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 2: just like I spent that time with Alex, I started

714
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 2: spending time and thankfully every one of them took the call.

715
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 2: And it was great talking to folks like Shicerri. It

716
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:39,400
Speaker 2: was great talking to folks like Gabby and Gabby in particular,

717
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:43,359
Speaker 2: she just has so much horsepower and she came back.

718
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,879
Speaker 2: She instantly instantly was like, I see it. This needs

719
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,600
Speaker 2: to happen. I mean, to everyone's credit, there wasn't a

720
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 2: single woman who said this is a bad idea. Some

721
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 2: of my tactics, they said were bad. It is, which

722
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,040
Speaker 2: is great. I needed that too, Like the curvy. I

723
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 2: wanted to have f one's. I was like, do we

724
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 2: need it to be an oval and every one of

725
00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 2: them said yes, don't, don't mess with that and keep

726
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,240
Speaker 2: it a NOV. I was like, okay, good, good feedback.

727
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 2: But as soon as I started talking about walkout songs

728
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 2: and I started talking about like orchestrating the meat from

729
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 2: first principles as an entertainment event as much as it

730
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 2: was a sport, so that you have like having a DJ.

731
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 2: I didn't know it was going to be nice at

732
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:24,480
Speaker 2: the time, but I was like, what if we have

733
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 2: a local DJ and they're spending the entire time and

734
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 2: so now you have you have such an interesting sport

735
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 2: because you you don't have a chance to look away

736
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,000
Speaker 2: once the sport is happening. So like again, I'm a

737
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 2: big American football fan. I grew up playing it. I

738
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,600
Speaker 2: love it. It's that's the one sport where I have

739
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 2: tunnel vision because I know it too well. I was

740
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 2: sort of oblivious to that. Was oblivious to tennis growing

741
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 2: up too. And you know, over the course of NFL game,

742
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 2: you have lots of starts and stops, but those stops,

743
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 2: you know you're in the huddle you're sort of reflecting

744
00:40:57,600 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 2: on the last player, you're thinking about the next play.

745
00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:00,839
Speaker 2: Like the fan experience, you really only get a break

746
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 2: at the end of the quarter for a little bit

747
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 2: and then halftime and whatever TV tune, but you're you're

748
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 2: kind of casually like there's there's there's not this explicit

749
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,120
Speaker 2: from the moment the first runner is called out to

750
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:18,560
Speaker 2: when they line up. Certainly, once they're on the line,

751
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 2: you cannot look away. And you know how fast this

752
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 2: sport goes, so especially for the sprinters, you don't have

753
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 2: much time to be paying any or any other kind

754
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 2: of attention, and that to me is valuable, right, even

755
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 2: though it's a small window, you are locked in. So

756
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:34,920
Speaker 2: then how do you tell the story of each of

757
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 2: these champions running up to this so that even someone

758
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,359
Speaker 2: who is a total neophyte can show up and be like, oh,

759
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 2: this is what I'm going to cheer for, maybe this

760
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:44,719
Speaker 2: is what I'm gonna cheer against. Right, you can have

761
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:48,879
Speaker 2: these stakes, right, and in this modern storytelling age, it's

762
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 2: not that hard to tell those stories, right, And then

763
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,680
Speaker 2: how do you make it engaging and interesting in between

764
00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 2: those races? And what was wild is is we got

765
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 2: such great feedback, and when I asked, like, what would

766
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: make this a must attend event, not surprisingly everyone said,

767
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 2: well the prize money. And I was like, okay, jeez,

768
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, so, okay, what's the prize money?

769
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 2: And once I was told that thirty thousand dollars was

770
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,880
Speaker 2: the top prize at the end of the season for

771
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 2: one of these ladies, I thought, oh my god, like,

772
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 2: I'll just double it. I don't have to be too scientific.

773
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 2: Let's just make it sixty k for one single race.

774
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,799
Speaker 2: Make it really high stakes, really high ROI and again,

775
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,800
Speaker 2: you're just building the tension, You're building the drama, building storyline,

776
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:38,239
Speaker 2: and if that makes it a must attend event on

777
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,040
Speaker 2: its own, just because you know, look, if thirty k

778
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 2: is the totally that's very very hard to be a

779
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 2: professional athlete unless you're the absolute best of the best

780
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:48,920
Speaker 2: of the best of the best. And that to me

781
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 2: looks like an opportunity, Right, So how do we reimagine

782
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,279
Speaker 2: what this even looks like so that we can build

783
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 2: the ecosystem for more of these athletes to be professionals.

784
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 2: And then I just got more and more momentum the

785
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 2: further along the process we gotten, and again credit to Gabby.

786
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 2: So what Alex Morgan is to Angel City and me

787
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,840
Speaker 2: getting started investing in soccer, Gabby Thomas is absolutely that

788
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 2: for track flows and people showed up. I mean, we

789
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,800
Speaker 2: we had nearly every seat filled of the five thousand

790
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 2: at Icon and then we got the final members in

791
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 2: over three million viewers on broadcast and we were so Twitter, YouTube,

792
00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 2: ESPN plus, ESPN two and Design three million and if

793
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,360
Speaker 2: you're if you're keeping score at home, Caitlin Clark's debut

794
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 2: and the W this year got like two point three

795
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 2: two point four, so you know, it was it was

796
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,840
Speaker 2: everything we expected it to be and then some. And

797
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,720
Speaker 2: we did this with a number of the stars from

798
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:50,959
Speaker 2: the Olympics, but not even all of them, and so

799
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 2: to put up those numbers, I think really it sent

800
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,080
Speaker 2: a signal to the track world and it's been so

801
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:01,920
Speaker 2: fun seeing the response, seeing the podcast, seeing folks on

802
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 2: social media. I don't think we'll ever go back now

803
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 2: because of what we've done, and we obviously want to

804
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:09,880
Speaker 2: keep getting better. There's so much more we're going to

805
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 2: do differently for next year. But it was a blast,

806
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:16,400
Speaker 2: and the promise was three hours a nice you know,

807
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:21,960
Speaker 2: typical American sports window of pure entertainment in athleticism and culture.

808
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 2: And we went head to head in Okay, so New

809
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 2: York City obviously say this is a four green kid like,

810
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 2: you know, the toughest market for getting people's attention and

811
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 2: justifying a Thursday night out high bar in New York.

812
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:37,280
Speaker 2: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

813
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:40,239
Speaker 2: And we went head to head with Goliath. Right, the

814
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,760
Speaker 2: Giants played the Cowboys just down the road in Jersey

815
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 2: for Thursday night football. The Yankees were playing just up

816
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 2: the road as we're getting ready for the MLB postseason,

817
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 2: and we still filled the house three million plus viewers.

818
00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:01,560
Speaker 2: I think we set a message and it all started

819
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:04,600
Speaker 2: with the ladies on the track, their energy, their excitement,

820
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 2: their enthusiasm. That was our goal was everyone of these

821
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:08,239
Speaker 2: ladies should come away from this meet saying it was

822
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:11,280
Speaker 2: the best meat that ever participated in, including the Olympics.

823
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 2: I won't say everyone said that, but we definitely heard

824
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 2: it more than a few times, and we're still collecting

825
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,960
Speaker 2: feedback from all the participants. But that was key because

826
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 2: if they felt like this was all the things we

827
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 2: knew it was, then the folks at home, the folks

828
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 2: in the stadium would feel it. You saw that reaction,

829
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 2: that energy coming from the crowd, which is then the

830
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 2: athletes feed off of more everyone at home watching the

831
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 2: broadcast is feeding off of And it was fun and

832
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,839
Speaker 2: the last part of my rants I remember opening day

833
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 2: for Angel City, our inaugural first ever match, and we have,

834
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 2: you know, twenty two thousand sold out crowd and that

835
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:49,239
Speaker 2: was a record. It never been done before in the NWSL,

836
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:52,120
Speaker 2: and for a while everyone said, you know, there was

837
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:56,040
Speaker 2: no chance it would happen, and it felt incredibly validating

838
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:57,839
Speaker 2: to be in that stadium that day with twenty two

839
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 2: thousand people screaming. This felt different. There was an even

840
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:07,799
Speaker 2: stronger energy. Even though the capacity of Icon where we

841
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,840
Speaker 2: had Athos was about a quarter of what Angel City's

842
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 2: arena is. That packed crowd vibing on that Thursday night,

843
00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 2: it felt different. It felt really, I don't describe it fun,

844
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 2: and I've been to a lot of sporting events. This

845
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 2: somehow blended the competitiveness of of any top tier, high

846
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 2: stake sporting event with just the fun that I haven't

847
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 2: really felt before. And like in sports, I don't know,

848
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 2: it just it was an energy.

849
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:44,359
Speaker 1: There's a lot more I want to ask you about

850
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,799
Speaker 1: the future of this particular event, but we are going

851
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 1: to take a very quick break and I will be

852
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:57,759
Speaker 1: back with more with Alexis o'han. All right, we'll be

853
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:09,480
Speaker 1: back at a moment. You know, one thing about you.

854
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 1: You're putting on such a spectacular event, as you said,

855
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:16,040
Speaker 1: like you already hinted about next year, what would you

856
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: ultimately like this event to be like if you can

857
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:22,360
Speaker 1: compare it to other sporting events that are already ingrained

858
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:25,879
Speaker 1: in American culture, Like what do you see as as

859
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: the ceiling for this, Well.

860
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,160
Speaker 2: At a minimum, I want this to be an important

861
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:33,840
Speaker 2: part of the New York sports landscape. It is in

862
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,239
Speaker 2: the same way like the US Open is one of

863
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 2: those musta tend events for not only tennis fans, but

864
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:43,200
Speaker 2: just New Yorkers or even just Americans or I mean

865
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 2: international folks come over all the time, like it is

866
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:51,440
Speaker 2: a marquee event of athletic excellence, and in a city

867
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 2: like New York. I think we proved we can go

868
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 2: to Totoe with anyone. And that was the first iteration, Right,

869
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:58,400
Speaker 2: It's only going to get better again if you have

870
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,239
Speaker 2: the attention, if you have the like generally speaking that

871
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,399
Speaker 2: the free market should be solving for this, and where

872
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 2: it fails is that's my alpha, that's my opportunity to

873
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 2: build these champions, to build this And it shouldn't surprise

874
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:20,920
Speaker 2: anyone that there's probably a high correlation between the fact

875
00:48:21,239 --> 00:48:26,240
Speaker 2: that this is a sport predominantly dominated by women of color,

876
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 2: Black women in particular, and it's also a sport that

877
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:35,360
Speaker 2: has been notoriously underinvested in. And I can't help but think,

878
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 2: especially because again, why do we love sport? This is why?

879
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 2: Why is such a powerful question, you know, because of

880
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:44,839
Speaker 2: Serena and Venus and really her parents realizing Okay, here's

881
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 2: a pathway to wealth and all the things that come

882
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:52,000
Speaker 2: with it. Tennis was a gateway. The economics play a

883
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,240
Speaker 2: big role here, and if we do our jobs well,

884
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 2: ten twenty years from now, this will be a sport

885
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 2: that has multimillion and why not, God bless them that

886
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 2: so many other athletes are able to make great careers

887
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 2: doing this.

888
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:08,919
Speaker 1: You know, you talked about sort of that historical undervaluing

889
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,600
Speaker 1: that has happened in track and field, which can be

890
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 1: translated to a lot of sports where black women are dominant.

891
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 1: You look at the WNBA where you have seventy percent

892
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 1: of the league are black women. Now obviously with you

893
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:28,480
Speaker 1: being husband to one of the greatest athletes in history,

894
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:32,600
Speaker 1: their father to two girls. But for as much as

895
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: you may have known about how sexism, misogyny racism are intertwined,

896
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:41,560
Speaker 1: being that this is personal to you now in a

897
00:49:41,680 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 1: different way, what have you sort of learned being the

898
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:50,759
Speaker 1: father and the husband you know, two black women, Like,

899
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:52,800
Speaker 1: what what have you What are some of the lessons

900
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 1: that you've or some of the realities that you've been

901
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:57,640
Speaker 1: able to unearth.

902
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:01,160
Speaker 2: That I've really tried even for really from when I

903
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:03,840
Speaker 2: resigned in protests from the Border Reddit back in twenty

904
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:07,960
Speaker 2: twenty started seven seven six. That was the start of

905
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 2: a I don't know, like a letter to my daughter,

906
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,400
Speaker 2: I guess now two daughters, but at the time only one,

907
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:22,879
Speaker 2: where I wanted her to see her dad doing not

908
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:25,320
Speaker 2: just the best work of his career, but doing it

909
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:26,880
Speaker 2: in a way she was going to be very proud of.

910
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:27,799
Speaker 4: Oh.

911
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:31,240
Speaker 1: And by the way, feel people in about why you resigned.

912
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 2: Sure so in the way of George Floyd. You know,

913
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 2: a lot of companies were now saying that they were

914
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,799
Speaker 2: standing in solidarity with you as of color and black

915
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 2: folks in particular, and I was having a lot of

916
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:50,760
Speaker 2: trouble reconciling the company's public statements this is reddits around

917
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,320
Speaker 2: those things, with the fact that there were thousands of

918
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,800
Speaker 2: very racist and hateful communities that I believed should have

919
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:58,920
Speaker 2: been banned a long time ago. The rest of the

920
00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:03,960
Speaker 2: board did not agree, and so I resigned and asked

921
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:07,799
Speaker 2: them to do it, to finally ban these communities, these

922
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,960
Speaker 2: eight communities, to also replace me with a black director.

923
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 2: And I just said, I can't keep being a party

924
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,399
Speaker 2: to this. And I think, just philosophically, there were other

925
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 2: things in the past that I didn't agree with being

926
00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:23,760
Speaker 2: on the platform around violence and all this other stuff.

927
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 2: And thankfully, about a month later, they did, and I

928
00:51:28,960 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 2: think the public pressure had a lot to do with it.

929
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 2: And then for you know, about the next month, I

930
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:37,400
Speaker 2: was really thinking through, like, all right, well what is next?

931
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:39,319
Speaker 2: Like I can do anything I want to do now,

932
00:51:40,239 --> 00:51:42,840
Speaker 2: and so building this firm seven to seventy six this

933
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:45,319
Speaker 2: way was what I was going to spend the rest

934
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,360
Speaker 2: of my life on. And again I just wanted to

935
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:50,719
Speaker 2: make sure I was doing it in a way that

936
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:55,520
Speaker 2: my daughters would be proud of. And what's been wild

937
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:58,719
Speaker 2: is how well things have gone since, and how there

938
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:00,279
Speaker 2: is some part of me that's like, God, do I

939
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:03,480
Speaker 2: do it sooner? But that's what life is, right, and

940
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:06,040
Speaker 2: so you can just keep learning and keep going forward.

941
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:10,240
Speaker 2: And so I have these two little girls who I deeply,

942
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 2: deeply want to impress because I know they'll be very

943
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 2: proud of their mom, because they'll hear people saying all

944
00:52:15,920 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 2: the time how they should be, and rightly so. But

945
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:20,680
Speaker 2: I'm a very competitive person and I want them to

946
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 2: be unreasonably proud of me too, and so I've tried.

947
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:28,960
Speaker 2: I've tried to build with that in mind, and I

948
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 2: do think there is Look, Olympia was there. It was

949
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:36,359
Speaker 2: so cool. She came to athlos got. She was there

950
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 2: nice and early, so I let her run on the track,

951
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 2: warming up with some of the ladies. And after it

952
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:43,840
Speaker 2: was all over, it was way past her bedtime, but

953
00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 2: she still she asked me. She was like, hey, can

954
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,320
Speaker 2: I go run on the track some more? After? So

955
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:50,239
Speaker 2: I was happy to oblige. You let her run, and

956
00:52:50,719 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 2: literally a day or two later, she came up to

957
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:55,719
Speaker 2: me and her mom and said, I want to run

958
00:52:55,760 --> 00:53:00,000
Speaker 2: track now. Okay, okay, I mean, she's still doing tennis lessons.

959
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:02,000
Speaker 2: I still do golf with there. We'll see, we'll see

960
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,440
Speaker 2: how well this this track thing sticks. But like that

961
00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:07,279
Speaker 2: was the impact one of the things we had hoped

962
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,799
Speaker 2: to have. You know, we had hundreds of kids from

963
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 2: the New York area who ran track, high school aged

964
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,000
Speaker 2: kids that we gifted tickets to, who got to see

965
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 2: for the first time ever this caliber of not just

966
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 2: athlete but production. So they really got to see, like, no,

967
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:24,000
Speaker 2: this this You know, by the time that you are grown,

968
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:26,359
Speaker 2: there should be more infrastructure here for this to really

969
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:30,840
Speaker 2: be a professional sport for you. And seeing it is

970
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 2: the first step to being it. And so yeah, I'm

971
00:53:32,719 --> 00:53:34,759
Speaker 2: not even I'm not in pervious to it in our

972
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:36,880
Speaker 2: own household. Like I saw the effect it had on her.

973
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 2: That was empowering, and I think I also I want

974
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:48,560
Speaker 2: to stress too. So I like winning. I like it

975
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 2: a lot, And I don't win in the same way

976
00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:52,759
Speaker 2: because business is not the same as sports. But I

977
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 2: like winning and investing on things, investing into things and

978
00:53:57,120 --> 00:53:59,320
Speaker 2: building things where I know it's going to keep compounding

979
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,600
Speaker 2: and gettinger and better. And I like being early. That's

980
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:06,759
Speaker 2: what gives me joy. Now it's seeing things maybe that

981
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,960
Speaker 2: other people don't appreciate or don't value, and being first

982
00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:13,360
Speaker 2: to say no, no, no, there's something here, here's money, here's resources,

983
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 2: here's building, and go run with it. And even in

984
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:23,080
Speaker 2: soccer one of the things I actually don't talk about

985
00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:25,799
Speaker 2: this much. So I'm glad you brought this up. You know,

986
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:28,560
Speaker 2: there's the story, which is true. We're watching It was

987
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 2: the final the World Cup in our Wimbledon house in

988
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:33,480
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen and Olympia was running around with her Alex

989
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:36,279
Speaker 2: Morgan jersey, which I bought, and she was kicking her

990
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 2: a little ball and I was like, oh, wouldn't it

991
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:40,200
Speaker 2: be great one day if Olympia played on the women's

992
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:42,879
Speaker 2: national team. Serena, without missing a beat, said not until

993
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:46,239
Speaker 2: they pair when she's worth like okay, touche, and then

994
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:48,399
Speaker 2: let me. That gave me even more encouragement to want

995
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 2: to build and invest in the league and build a

996
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,440
Speaker 2: team up so that again the market corrects. But it

997
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:57,320
Speaker 2: was not lost on me. You know, the next generation

998
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:04,160
Speaker 2: of US women's soccer or talent was frankly much more

999
00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:06,799
Speaker 2: black than it had ever been before. And you had

1000
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:10,480
Speaker 2: this new generation of soccer historically predominantly white sport, pretty

1001
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:16,120
Speaker 2: upper class, middle class type sport. And for all of

1002
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:18,920
Speaker 2: the again, for all the doors that were opened, for

1003
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:23,000
Speaker 2: all the excellence and all the greatness, you could see

1004
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen that there was a new generation of

1005
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:28,840
Speaker 2: soccer talent coming through that was much more representative of

1006
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 2: a much broader part of the population. Now, why else

1007
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 2: is that interesting? Me? Yes, obviously have a black daughter.

1008
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:38,560
Speaker 2: And if you look at the intersection between sport and culture,

1009
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:46,479
Speaker 2: culture is disproportionately created by communities of color and black

1010
00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:48,239
Speaker 2: folks in particular. And if you really want to get

1011
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,400
Speaker 2: in the nitty gritty of it, every successful social networking

1012
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 2: app is successful because of young girls posting on it,

1013
00:55:55,480 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 2: whether it's been Instagram, snap, TikTok like that. That is

1014
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 2: where the the pulse of youth culture, which ends up

1015
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 2: determining what app takes off and what doesn't, what music

1016
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:09,799
Speaker 2: takes off and what doesn't, What clothing, what make ego

1017
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:13,600
Speaker 2: on the list. It all starts with women can be

1018
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:17,280
Speaker 2: younger women and often black women. And so now again

1019
00:56:17,320 --> 00:56:22,960
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, Okay, if the new athlete is direct to consumer, right,

1020
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:25,560
Speaker 2: they're building the followings on social media, none of them

1021
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:29,560
Speaker 2: expected to be handed anything right, and so they knew

1022
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:31,359
Speaker 2: they had to be their own creative director. They knew

1023
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 2: women already create more content than on social and in general.

1024
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:36,239
Speaker 2: But if you're an athlete, again, you know you're not

1025
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:39,000
Speaker 2: just getting handered a sneaker deal. So you have to

1026
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 2: be doing more storytelling. You just have to be more

1027
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:46,360
Speaker 2: savvy and sophisticated. And then with Nil knocking on the door,

1028
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:48,360
Speaker 2: that was going to be the thing that made it

1029
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:52,400
Speaker 2: unavoidable because once you could make millions of dollars in college.

1030
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 2: And again that's not because of feminism, that's not because

1031
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:58,520
Speaker 2: it feels good. That's not because of charity. That is

1032
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:03,240
Speaker 2: the free market and brands saying take our money because

1033
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 2: your audience is really that valuable to us. Once that happened,

1034
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:09,440
Speaker 2: it was very clear there was no going back. And

1035
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:14,919
Speaker 2: then once you see that the predominant women who would

1036
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:16,840
Speaker 2: be commanding this will be women of color, you're like, okay,

1037
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:19,520
Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's a seismic shift happening here. And

1038
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,920
Speaker 2: so even a sport, you know, in America we're not

1039
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:25,840
Speaker 2: really a soccer nation. Certainly none on the men's side,

1040
00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 2: because again, Americans love greatness. American men, sorry, Christian but

1041
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:34,200
Speaker 2: like American men not great. Yeah, yeah, I think American

1042
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:36,600
Speaker 2: women phenomenal. And then now all of a sudden, you

1043
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:39,600
Speaker 2: had all this latent energy and excitement around the sport,

1044
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:41,680
Speaker 2: You had a legacy of greatness, and it was about

1045
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:44,240
Speaker 2: to get supercharged because there was a new generation of

1046
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:49,440
Speaker 2: talent that finally broke a lot of color barriers historically

1047
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 2: for the sport and was going to be driving culture online.

1048
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:55,720
Speaker 2: And again that's all that's where I look toward for

1049
00:57:55,840 --> 00:58:00,680
Speaker 2: so much of this. And so it does feel good

1050
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:06,600
Speaker 2: knowing that even if it's soccer, even if it's track, whatever,

1051
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 2: Olympia and Adira, I want to do that I could

1052
00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:12,440
Speaker 2: be help investing in that infrastructure that I know is

1053
00:58:12,440 --> 00:58:15,560
Speaker 2: going to help right some of the historical wrongs. And

1054
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 2: again not because of charity, but because if you want

1055
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,520
Speaker 2: your brand to be relevant, like these are the athletes

1056
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:26,280
Speaker 2: you want to be investing behind. And and like I said,

1057
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:29,640
Speaker 2: track was just sitting there in play in sight. I

1058
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 2: could explain it to my seven year old instantly. Right,

1059
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:35,360
Speaker 2: They're gonna the guns go off, and they're gonna run

1060
00:58:35,360 --> 00:58:37,080
Speaker 2: as fast as they can from point A to point B.

1061
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 2: And you already had you know, icons participating in the sport,

1062
00:58:43,080 --> 00:58:46,280
Speaker 2: the legacy of American greatness, and you have something that

1063
00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:51,440
Speaker 2: I think is just unlike I think we did something

1064
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:55,760
Speaker 2: at athletes that was just unlike any other sporting or

1065
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 2: cultural event. It was it was somehow both and people

1066
00:58:59,880 --> 00:59:01,480
Speaker 2: like said, people seem to have really good time. And

1067
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:04,560
Speaker 2: these athletes have been waiting. You know, they're they're hungry

1068
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:07,240
Speaker 2: for this. They know we're on the precipice of something here.

1069
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:08,720
Speaker 2: They're going to keep They're going to keep pushing.

1070
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:14,000
Speaker 1: Now, you, obviously, with your financial acumen, have been able

1071
00:59:14,040 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 1: to make an incredible amount of money. Serena is one

1072
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 1: of the highest paid female athletes of all time. What

1073
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 1: does financial lessons in your household look like in terms

1074
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:26,600
Speaker 1: of your children, Like, what do you tell Alexis an

1075
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 1: end about money and investing? Like, I mean, I think

1076
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 1: Alexis is she still like the youngest team owner ever.

1077
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:37,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dera is. So what I made is well technically okay,

1078
00:59:37,120 --> 00:59:39,640
Speaker 2: but so Olympia and I love it. So Alexis. Yes,

1079
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:44,040
Speaker 2: I am Alexis O'hanian senior. She is Alexis Olympia o'hanan Jr.

1080
00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:48,000
Speaker 1: So you guys just call her Olympia usually, but she

1081
00:59:48,440 --> 00:59:48,880
Speaker 1: made a point.

1082
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:52,080
Speaker 2: I was actually dropping her off today at school and

1083
00:59:52,120 --> 00:59:54,560
Speaker 2: I had one of the old you puss with a

1084
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:58,000
Speaker 2: sign on your front windshields so they know that you're

1085
00:59:58,040 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 2: a parent doing a drop off, and it was this,

1086
01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:03,160
Speaker 2: uh it's still They had Alexis as her first name,

1087
01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 2: and she was like pop. She just started laughing. She's

1088
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:09,120
Speaker 2: like POPA says Alexis. Everyone knows I go buy Olympia. Okay,

1089
01:00:09,400 --> 01:00:11,640
Speaker 2: it's just a sign, baby, I'm gonna change it for you,

1090
01:00:11,640 --> 01:00:15,880
Speaker 2: don't worry. Uh, but yes, so for her, for Olympia

1091
01:00:15,880 --> 01:00:19,240
Speaker 2: and Adira, look, they have no concept of being the

1092
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 2: youngest owners in sports. When I when I started Angel City,

1093
01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:24,720
Speaker 2: I set aside two hundred and fifty K that I

1094
01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:27,400
Speaker 2: put directly into a trust for Olympia and then for

1095
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:30,720
Speaker 2: any other kids Serena and I had, which you know

1096
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:33,400
Speaker 2: they're still you know, we'll be holding onto that for

1097
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:35,400
Speaker 2: a very long time. That that was the official like

1098
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 2: making Olympia the youngest owner in sports. But then when

1099
01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:42,400
Speaker 2: Adira came along, technically she was sort of grandmothered into it.

1100
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:45,720
Speaker 2: So it's I guess technic they're gonna have to share

1101
01:00:45,720 --> 01:00:47,560
Speaker 2: that title now and then when I did the ball

1102
01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:50,080
Speaker 2: team in Tigers League, I did the same thing, so

1103
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:52,040
Speaker 2: they're also a part of that. And I guess technically

1104
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:53,760
Speaker 2: they would be an afflos too, So it's we're just

1105
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 2: running up the tally, but they have no concept of that.

1106
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:00,720
Speaker 2: We're still I'm going to do here is just one,

1107
01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:04,280
Speaker 2: so we're it's early for the financial lessons. But for Olympia,

1108
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 2: you know, she has an allowance. She gets seven dollars

1109
01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:10,919
Speaker 2: a week, She has her chores, just got to feed

1110
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:11,280
Speaker 2: the dog.

1111
01:01:11,520 --> 01:01:14,240
Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, wait wait wait, Olympia gets seven dollars

1112
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:16,280
Speaker 1: a week. Can I represent her?

1113
01:01:16,320 --> 01:01:16,480
Speaker 5: Wait?

1114
01:01:17,200 --> 01:01:18,040
Speaker 2: Get more or less?

1115
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:20,560
Speaker 1: I'm joking, but I think it's so cute.

1116
01:01:20,960 --> 01:01:23,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because I didn't know you got it

1117
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 2: just for inflation, and I because I don't.

1118
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:30,440
Speaker 1: Know it like a bag of chips might be the Yeah.

1119
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:32,520
Speaker 2: Probably got like a dollar or two. I got asked

1120
01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 2: my dad for all my chores. And then when I

1121
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 2: first proposed it, Serena was like, that's not enough. And

1122
01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 2: actually she's Serena has been her. She's playing both sides.

1123
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:43,640
Speaker 2: Serena is her lawyer in the negotiation, and because I

1124
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:45,840
Speaker 2: drew up a real contract, I mean just playing English,

1125
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:47,680
Speaker 2: not like legal ease. But I drew up a contract.

1126
01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:50,160
Speaker 2: We negotiated it. Her mom was her counsel, which was

1127
01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 2: really frustrating. But it's okay, tough negotiator and uh yes,

1128
01:01:55,600 --> 01:01:58,280
Speaker 2: she'll when she got to feed the dog, she got

1129
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,000
Speaker 2: to put her clothes in the hamper. She made her bed.

1130
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:04,400
Speaker 2: I think that's it. So she does that five days week.

1131
01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:07,640
Speaker 2: Mom negotiated weekends off. Okay, good.

1132
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:09,080
Speaker 1: Does she get vacation time?

1133
01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:12,800
Speaker 2: Is that no? Actually no holiday?

1134
01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:14,720
Speaker 1: Okay, choice, she doesn't have to do it chars.

1135
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:18,320
Speaker 2: Okay, So I mean again, Mom took care of that.

1136
01:02:18,520 --> 01:02:20,440
Speaker 2: I was a little I was trying. I was pushing harder,

1137
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:23,880
Speaker 2: but this is you know, it's his right to get counseled.

1138
01:02:25,040 --> 01:02:27,320
Speaker 2: But it's good. I want her. It's funny. Half the

1139
01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:31,160
Speaker 2: time she wants it all in roebucks. That's the video

1140
01:02:31,200 --> 01:02:34,400
Speaker 2: game we let her play, and and she'll It was

1141
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:36,680
Speaker 2: a while before she actually even wanted it in cash.

1142
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:41,280
Speaker 2: And and then I figured out how to get hurt

1143
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:45,480
Speaker 2: at value cash, which was helpful. She really wanted this

1144
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:47,560
Speaker 2: Tamagotchi watch. I think it was a little bit was

1145
01:02:47,560 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 2: like one hundred and twenty five dollars some friend of

1146
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:50,760
Speaker 2: hers had it. She was like, oh, I want this

1147
01:02:50,800 --> 01:02:52,880
Speaker 2: watch and I was like, oh great, and I was like,

1148
01:02:52,920 --> 01:02:55,520
Speaker 2: you got money, like, let's count it up, see what

1149
01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:59,120
Speaker 2: you got, and she's like, I don't have enough. I

1150
01:02:59,120 --> 01:03:01,520
Speaker 2: was like okay, good, Like embrace that feeling, like how

1151
01:03:01,520 --> 01:03:03,480
Speaker 2: many more weeks of allowance do you need to be

1152
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:05,520
Speaker 2: able to save up for? And she's like three more.

1153
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, great. As soon as she gets it,

1154
01:03:10,520 --> 01:03:14,120
Speaker 2: we'd clear out the bank. Piggybank's empty and she gets

1155
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 2: a time I got you watch. A week goes by,

1156
01:03:16,640 --> 01:03:19,840
Speaker 2: she stopped caring about it, and then you know, another

1157
01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:21,560
Speaker 2: week or two comes by and she's like, oh, I

1158
01:03:21,600 --> 01:03:26,120
Speaker 2: really want this whatever American girl dress, doll, American girl

1159
01:03:26,160 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 2: doll dress or some kind of outfit. And I was like, oh, well, yeah,

1160
01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 2: go to your piggy bank, see what you got. And

1161
01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:35,000
Speaker 2: I know she's forgotten or I don't know, maybe she's

1162
01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 2: hoping to herself there'd magically be more money there because

1163
01:03:37,760 --> 01:03:40,320
Speaker 2: an auntie snuck it in and she finds there's nothing

1164
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:43,480
Speaker 2: there and she's like, oh, but I really want this,

1165
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:47,280
Speaker 2: Like yeah, you do, but you don't have any money

1166
01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:49,960
Speaker 2: and just trying like and she'll give me the cute

1167
01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:52,680
Speaker 2: puppy eyes like to believe me. She knows how to work, Papa.

1168
01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:56,000
Speaker 2: But I have to remain resolute in these moments. There

1169
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:57,680
Speaker 2: are other times I give in. I'll be real, I'm

1170
01:03:57,680 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 2: not not one hundred percent of this, But in the

1171
01:03:59,120 --> 01:04:01,080
Speaker 2: cobple these moments, I need her to feel this pain

1172
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:04,680
Speaker 2: of like, oh, like I'm gonna have to wait, I

1173
01:04:04,720 --> 01:04:07,200
Speaker 2: gotta wait two more weeks for that paycheck. Right. I

1174
01:04:07,240 --> 01:04:12,000
Speaker 2: need her to feel that little bit of pain and

1175
01:04:12,040 --> 01:04:14,160
Speaker 2: then start to remember like, right, but because I do

1176
01:04:14,240 --> 01:04:17,280
Speaker 2: this work, I get this money. And look, I don't

1177
01:04:17,280 --> 01:04:21,000
Speaker 2: know neither Serena nor I obviously grew up with with wealth.

1178
01:04:21,240 --> 01:04:24,040
Speaker 2: And so that's the other weird thing is we're both

1179
01:04:24,040 --> 01:04:27,360
Speaker 2: trying to navigate how to create the circumstances for her

1180
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,400
Speaker 2: to be able to be a functional adult while also

1181
01:04:30,640 --> 01:04:33,480
Speaker 2: having resources that we couldn't have imagined. And at the

1182
01:04:33,520 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 2: same time, you want to have I want to give

1183
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:38,040
Speaker 2: for your kids. You want to provide the opportunities, but

1184
01:04:38,880 --> 01:04:40,520
Speaker 2: I still need that. I need her to feel a

1185
01:04:40,520 --> 01:04:43,560
Speaker 2: little bit of that pain and to hopefully hopefully have

1186
01:04:43,600 --> 01:04:45,760
Speaker 2: it sink in. But we'll see, I'm gonna I joke,

1187
01:04:45,960 --> 01:04:47,760
Speaker 2: although I'm not joking. I'm gonna make her work at

1188
01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:50,440
Speaker 2: like a Pinkberry or something. She's got to work a

1189
01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:54,400
Speaker 2: retail job or a service job. Papa worked pizza Hut

1190
01:04:54,440 --> 01:04:57,000
Speaker 2: for three years, so I don't could be a pizza

1191
01:04:57,000 --> 01:04:57,560
Speaker 2: I don't mind.

1192
01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:00,800
Speaker 1: So how do you I'm sure I know you get

1193
01:05:00,840 --> 01:05:02,640
Speaker 1: us as commonly, but how do you How do you

1194
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 1: feel about the prospect of Olympia or Deer becoming potentially becoming.

1195
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:11,920
Speaker 2: Professional I don't think become entrepreneurs, though I would love that.

1196
01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:17,200
Speaker 1: I yeah, but people, it's hard to dismiss the genes.

1197
01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:21,520
Speaker 2: I get that clearly.

1198
01:05:21,520 --> 01:05:24,760
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you. I mean, yes, by the way,

1199
01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:26,400
Speaker 1: I mean you're tall.

1200
01:05:26,240 --> 01:05:34,000
Speaker 2: Like they're both percent already height wise, and some tall girls,

1201
01:05:34,040 --> 01:05:36,000
Speaker 2: and then you've got Screena's not very tall, but her

1202
01:05:36,920 --> 01:05:37,959
Speaker 2: her father and then.

1203
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:39,479
Speaker 1: I mean for a woman.

1204
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:42,880
Speaker 2: All right, now, they listed five to nine, but that's

1205
01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:48,560
Speaker 2: that's that's probably, but that's she walks tall, she stands tall,

1206
01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:53,280
Speaker 2: but she's like maybe five spoiler. I wouldn't have said

1207
01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:54,960
Speaker 2: that while she's still playing, because you got to keep

1208
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:56,400
Speaker 2: the mind games up.

1209
01:05:57,400 --> 01:06:00,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to keep the minds I'm six five, so.

1210
01:06:01,680 --> 01:06:03,680
Speaker 2: I think these girls will be tall. We'll see. I

1211
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:07,280
Speaker 2: mean I got I got introduced to Flage probably a

1212
01:06:07,400 --> 01:06:10,840
Speaker 2: year ago, no, six, eight, nine months ago, got them connected.

1213
01:06:11,520 --> 01:06:14,240
Speaker 2: So I'm like, I'm like, maybe it's some basketball. It

1214
01:06:14,240 --> 01:06:19,040
Speaker 2: hasn't really stuck. She's playing tennis, she's playing golf. Apparently

1215
01:06:19,120 --> 01:06:23,200
Speaker 2: track is her new thing. Yeah, but what about And.

1216
01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:25,400
Speaker 1: I'm super jealous because every time you post a golf

1217
01:06:25,440 --> 01:06:27,280
Speaker 1: clip of Olympia, I took up a ten years ago,

1218
01:06:27,360 --> 01:06:30,560
Speaker 1: me and my husband hearts swing. It's better than mine,

1219
01:06:30,640 --> 01:06:32,080
Speaker 1: and I immediately.

1220
01:06:32,240 --> 01:06:34,600
Speaker 2: Compare me to me too. I've never played it before.

1221
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:37,840
Speaker 2: And then Uncle Tiger gave me some clubs at a

1222
01:06:37,840 --> 01:06:41,360
Speaker 2: board meeting and I was like, I was like, Tiger,

1223
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:43,959
Speaker 2: these are too small for me. He's like, of course

1224
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:46,680
Speaker 2: they're not for you for Olympia, get out of here.

1225
01:06:47,040 --> 01:06:48,800
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, okay, I get it. I

1226
01:06:48,840 --> 01:06:52,360
Speaker 2: get it. Okay. So I bring them home and I'm like, Olympia,

1227
01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:56,720
Speaker 2: Papa's friend got you some golf clubs. She's like, what

1228
01:06:56,720 --> 01:06:58,400
Speaker 2: what's up? Golf? C Lisse is like she's probably four

1229
01:06:58,480 --> 01:07:00,640
Speaker 2: or five, like what golf clubs? And I'm like, yes,

1230
01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:05,520
Speaker 2: and you're going to learn how to play golf. She's like, okay, whatever, Papa,

1231
01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:07,640
Speaker 2: And so thankfully we've got a very good instructor because

1232
01:07:07,640 --> 01:07:11,440
Speaker 2: I had never played, And so we go almost every Sunday.

1233
01:07:11,640 --> 01:07:15,080
Speaker 2: We missed, missed yesterday because of the hurricane, but we

1234
01:07:15,120 --> 01:07:17,160
Speaker 2: go almost every Sunday, and I'm her daddy caddie. And

1235
01:07:17,200 --> 01:07:19,440
Speaker 2: I finally got some clubs because she got so good

1236
01:07:20,040 --> 01:07:22,320
Speaker 2: that I was. I was like, this was it was

1237
01:07:22,360 --> 01:07:24,360
Speaker 2: just humbling standing next to her when she'd rip it

1238
01:07:24,440 --> 01:07:26,200
Speaker 2: like one hundred yards and I'd be like, okay, I

1239
01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:29,280
Speaker 2: really got like this would be a great daddy daughter exercise.

1240
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:32,440
Speaker 2: But I've never played, so I got to learn. Anyway,

1241
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:35,680
Speaker 2: I'm slowly learning. But the way it'll happen is I'm

1242
01:07:35,720 --> 01:07:39,040
Speaker 2: on the driving range and I'll be hitting balls and again,

1243
01:07:39,120 --> 01:07:42,320
Speaker 2: still just learning how to swing. And it's hard, man.

1244
01:07:43,720 --> 01:07:47,320
Speaker 2: It's a humbling sport. And you will. We'll start out

1245
01:07:47,320 --> 01:07:49,160
Speaker 2: on the range for maybe twenty thirty minutes, and then

1246
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:51,760
Speaker 2: she'll go and she'll go hit a couple holes with

1247
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:54,480
Speaker 2: our with her instructor, and I'll just keep working on

1248
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:56,120
Speaker 2: the range because I'm still working on the front of us.

1249
01:07:56,560 --> 01:07:58,760
Speaker 2: But it only dawned in me a few months ago.

1250
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:02,960
Speaker 2: We've been doing this for like six months. She sees

1251
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:06,960
Speaker 2: me with all the other older white dudes on the range,

1252
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:10,200
Speaker 2: and her instructor is a woman as well, and so

1253
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:15,439
Speaker 2: she goes and she plays golf with another lady, and

1254
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:19,240
Speaker 2: in her mind, all the old white guys are just

1255
01:08:19,360 --> 01:08:23,640
Speaker 2: dads waiting for their daughters playing golf, because golf is

1256
01:08:23,640 --> 01:08:27,479
Speaker 2: a sport for girls, and the dads are just you know,

1257
01:08:28,040 --> 01:08:30,679
Speaker 2: trying their hardest to learn how to hit a ball

1258
01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:33,479
Speaker 2: back on the range. And I don't want to ever.

1259
01:08:33,520 --> 01:08:35,120
Speaker 2: I mean, at some point she's going to realize that's

1260
01:08:35,160 --> 01:08:40,120
Speaker 2: not actually golf. But the idea that this sweet, sweet

1261
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:43,400
Speaker 2: black girl seven years old, she genuinely believes that golf

1262
01:08:43,479 --> 01:08:47,600
Speaker 2: is a sport for her is awesome to me. And

1263
01:08:48,120 --> 01:08:50,120
Speaker 2: so look, if she ended up playing some golf, it'll

1264
01:08:50,120 --> 01:08:53,200
Speaker 2: be a hell of a story. Obviously, tennis is one

1265
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:57,800
Speaker 2: I think Vegas is probably betting on. But the nice

1266
01:08:57,800 --> 01:09:02,519
Speaker 2: thing is, no matter what, she's got someone in her

1267
01:09:02,520 --> 01:09:07,360
Speaker 2: mom who can give her the straight talk early on

1268
01:09:07,760 --> 01:09:11,000
Speaker 2: of just what it will take. And you know, that's

1269
01:09:11,120 --> 01:09:13,600
Speaker 2: I think there's there's Look, there's plenty of plenty of

1270
01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:15,519
Speaker 2: parents who would love for their kids to get into

1271
01:09:16,040 --> 01:09:19,479
Speaker 2: professional sports. But when you've got someone like her who

1272
01:09:19,560 --> 01:09:22,120
Speaker 2: can actually help sit you down and just be like, listen,

1273
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:24,880
Speaker 2: it's going to be hard, and here's why, and here's

1274
01:09:24,880 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 2: what you're going to endure. And then not to mention

1275
01:09:26,960 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 2: being the daughter of Serena as what you know Lebron

1276
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:34,160
Speaker 2: and Bronnie are going through right now, there's certainly echoes

1277
01:09:34,240 --> 01:09:37,640
Speaker 2: of that that any kid would have to fulfill in

1278
01:09:37,680 --> 01:09:41,120
Speaker 2: terms of expectations. You know, Griffy Senior and Griffy Junior.

1279
01:09:41,439 --> 01:09:43,439
Speaker 2: Now I'm really dating myself. I feel like that was

1280
01:09:43,520 --> 01:09:49,519
Speaker 2: the canonical example of like multi generational sports. I mean,

1281
01:09:49,560 --> 01:09:52,519
Speaker 2: Griffy Junior. What I mean, Griffy's senior was was good,

1282
01:09:52,600 --> 01:09:55,720
Speaker 2: but I feel like Junior was better, right am. I

1283
01:09:55,720 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm biased. I'm not a baseball guy.

1284
01:10:00,120 --> 01:10:00,240
Speaker 1: Or not.

1285
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:05,559
Speaker 2: I mean, and that's that's special. Now. Uh, Griffy Senior

1286
01:10:05,680 --> 01:10:08,519
Speaker 2: was not the Serena of baseball, nor the Lebron of

1287
01:10:08,600 --> 01:10:13,160
Speaker 2: basketball or of baseball, but that'll certainly be a factor.

1288
01:10:13,200 --> 01:10:15,559
Speaker 2: But look, like any parent, you just want your kids

1289
01:10:15,560 --> 01:10:18,760
Speaker 2: to be healthy, be happy, thrive at whatever they do.

1290
01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:24,200
Speaker 2: We certainly want our girls should try to be the

1291
01:10:24,240 --> 01:10:28,360
Speaker 2: absolute best whatever they're for sure, and it's just certainly

1292
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:30,479
Speaker 2: a lot harder to do that in sports because there's

1293
01:10:30,479 --> 01:10:32,720
Speaker 2: nowhere to hide. You have to go out there every

1294
01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:33,680
Speaker 2: day and do it.

1295
01:10:34,680 --> 01:10:39,040
Speaker 1: The controversy opens here. So here is the messy question

1296
01:10:39,240 --> 01:10:41,639
Speaker 1: that I'm going to present to you, and that is

1297
01:10:42,240 --> 01:10:45,200
Speaker 1: tell me something that you're better at than Serena.

1298
01:10:45,439 --> 01:10:47,600
Speaker 2: And it really Oh I thought, man, I thought you

1299
01:10:47,640 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 2: were going to go to a totally different directions. So

1300
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:54,600
Speaker 2: this is this is easy. H all right, there are

1301
01:10:54,640 --> 01:10:56,120
Speaker 2: a lot of things I'm better at than her.

1302
01:10:57,720 --> 01:10:58,800
Speaker 1: All right, talk yall ship.

1303
01:11:00,360 --> 01:11:02,760
Speaker 2: Would you didn't give me a sport? You didn't you

1304
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:07,360
Speaker 2: didn't say, like specifically a sport? What I come on,

1305
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:10,000
Speaker 2: I got it, Okay, I am a better artist. So

1306
01:11:10,040 --> 01:11:14,200
Speaker 2: we'll do little drawing classes around the dinner table, like

1307
01:11:14,240 --> 01:11:16,519
Speaker 2: I'll fire up a YouTube channel where it's like like

1308
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:18,920
Speaker 2: a step by step drawing class, like Olympia, what I

1309
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:20,679
Speaker 2: want to draw today? And she'll be like a unicorn.

1310
01:11:20,680 --> 01:11:23,519
Speaker 2: I'll be like cool, and I'm a much better artist.

1311
01:11:23,560 --> 01:11:23,840
Speaker 3: But I was.

1312
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:26,640
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Olympia is like, Papa, how do

1313
01:11:26,680 --> 01:11:29,680
Speaker 2: you draw so well? I'm like, do you think I

1314
01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:32,720
Speaker 2: was born this way. She's like no, And I was like, well,

1315
01:11:32,760 --> 01:11:35,639
Speaker 2: what do you think I did practice? And I've because

1316
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:38,120
Speaker 2: I've done this so many times, She's gotten so used

1317
01:11:38,160 --> 01:11:39,760
Speaker 2: to it. But I like, I need her to know, Yeah,

1318
01:11:39,800 --> 01:11:41,519
Speaker 2: Papa's good a drawing, because you see in the forty

1319
01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:43,679
Speaker 2: one year old version of Papa who's been drawing since

1320
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:46,880
Speaker 2: he was your age. And you know, you know the

1321
01:11:46,880 --> 01:11:48,880
Speaker 2: pancakes I do every Sunday, Like that's just me getting

1322
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:51,000
Speaker 2: in more reps Olympia and if you want to be

1323
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:54,880
Speaker 2: good at this thing, keep drowing, do better and uh

1324
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:58,040
Speaker 2: and so that one, and I Serena knows much much

1325
01:11:58,040 --> 01:12:02,679
Speaker 2: better artist. She would contest it, but I think I'm

1326
01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:07,400
Speaker 2: a better cook. She's a better baker, But I am

1327
01:12:07,439 --> 01:12:11,799
Speaker 2: a better cook just from a sheer like repertoire range.

1328
01:12:12,560 --> 01:12:16,240
Speaker 2: And that's simply because I really got into smoking and

1329
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:17,680
Speaker 2: grilling over like I.

1330
01:12:17,640 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 1: Noticed you posted instagram of the brisket.

1331
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:25,439
Speaker 2: Okay, So so I so I think that one. She

1332
01:12:25,479 --> 01:12:27,519
Speaker 2: would argue with a bit more. But I think I

1333
01:12:27,520 --> 01:12:30,439
Speaker 2: think I come through. I just I really I obsess

1334
01:12:30,520 --> 01:12:33,479
Speaker 2: over stuff when I get a thing, especially we went

1335
01:12:33,520 --> 01:12:35,880
Speaker 2: to Austin, Olympia. Loved to brisket, and I was like, great,

1336
01:12:36,040 --> 01:12:39,439
Speaker 2: my baby's gonna have brisket every weekend. And I got

1337
01:12:39,439 --> 01:12:43,240
Speaker 2: a smoker. I was on the YouTube with the Meat

1338
01:12:43,320 --> 01:12:47,400
Speaker 2: Church shout out Meat Church instructional videos. I'm getting the seasoning,

1339
01:12:47,439 --> 01:12:50,960
Speaker 2: I'm getting the gloves. I have a guy now in

1340
01:12:51,240 --> 01:12:54,040
Speaker 2: Western just west of here that actually ships the like

1341
01:12:54,080 --> 01:12:58,639
Speaker 2: I get the meat that does it never hit a freezer, Jamelle,

1342
01:12:59,520 --> 01:13:01,800
Speaker 2: my girls they get the best. And also just from

1343
01:13:01,800 --> 01:13:03,559
Speaker 2: a health standpoint, I'm like, look, I got what's the

1344
01:13:03,560 --> 01:13:05,519
Speaker 2: point of money if I can't use it to provide

1345
01:13:05,600 --> 01:13:09,439
Speaker 2: my girls the best possible food. And so now I've

1346
01:13:09,439 --> 01:13:11,439
Speaker 2: gotten really into smoke and grill and all that stuff.

1347
01:13:12,240 --> 01:13:14,519
Speaker 2: And then what else? Hold on video games better than her?

1348
01:13:14,560 --> 01:13:16,160
Speaker 2: Video games though that that's much of a skill, but

1349
01:13:16,240 --> 01:13:23,280
Speaker 2: I'll take it. She's she's better at board games, okay,

1350
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:25,400
Speaker 2: but but yeah, there's a lot of things.

1351
01:13:25,720 --> 01:13:26,720
Speaker 1: So so that's that.

1352
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:32,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, her jump shot is terrible. Uh, And that that

1353
01:13:32,960 --> 01:13:35,760
Speaker 2: was That was a key moment early in the relationship

1354
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:43,160
Speaker 2: because you you kind of expect an athlete to be

1355
01:13:43,400 --> 01:13:46,479
Speaker 2: just ridiculously great at everything, and it turns out she's, like,

1356
01:13:46,560 --> 01:13:49,680
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things. She's also ridiculously great at athletically,

1357
01:13:50,160 --> 01:13:53,599
Speaker 2: but then there are these weird technique things like shooting

1358
01:13:53,600 --> 01:13:56,680
Speaker 2: a basketball where if you just haven't done it, you're

1359
01:13:56,720 --> 01:13:59,200
Speaker 2: actually pretty bad. And if you are someone who went

1360
01:13:59,240 --> 01:14:02,759
Speaker 2: to a few basketball camps through middle school and high school,

1361
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:07,759
Speaker 2: like you're just slightly better at it. And while so there's.

1362
01:14:07,960 --> 01:14:10,519
Speaker 1: Well, it kind of reminds me of sometimes when you

1363
01:14:10,560 --> 01:14:14,439
Speaker 1: see pro basketball players try to play softball and they

1364
01:14:14,479 --> 01:14:18,080
Speaker 1: look so awkward, like this is that or even obviously

1365
01:14:18,080 --> 01:14:20,040
Speaker 1: if we seen with golf, golf makes everybody.

1366
01:14:19,680 --> 01:14:23,679
Speaker 2: Look a little bit. Let's talk about tennis right like that. Oh,

1367
01:14:23,760 --> 01:14:26,200
Speaker 2: I've never picked up a racket in my life, and

1368
01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:29,280
Speaker 2: it will. I don't think I'll ever change that for

1369
01:14:29,320 --> 01:14:32,559
Speaker 2: the sake of my ego. Now, some of those, any

1370
01:14:32,560 --> 01:14:34,760
Speaker 2: of those stick sports, whether it's hitting a baseball or

1371
01:14:34,760 --> 01:14:39,080
Speaker 2: a softball, playing tennis, golf, those stick sports I have

1372
01:14:39,160 --> 01:14:42,960
Speaker 2: found so incredibly humbling and so damn hard. And I

1373
01:14:42,960 --> 01:14:44,599
Speaker 2: didn't play any of them as kids, so I didn't

1374
01:14:44,600 --> 01:14:45,840
Speaker 2: even get I don't even get a few of the

1375
01:14:45,840 --> 01:14:47,920
Speaker 2: reps in early that I could lean back. And then

1376
01:14:48,640 --> 01:14:52,960
Speaker 2: first time I took us out with us from one

1377
01:14:52,960 --> 01:14:59,320
Speaker 2: of those daddy daughter golfing sessions. She's like, let me

1378
01:14:59,320 --> 01:15:03,800
Speaker 2: try this, grabs a driver and she's like, oh, it's

1379
01:15:03,840 --> 01:15:06,519
Speaker 2: kind of like a backhand, and I'm just like, god,

1380
01:15:06,800 --> 01:15:12,880
Speaker 2: damn it. She crushed up. Of course the motion is

1381
01:15:12,920 --> 01:15:16,120
Speaker 2: not it's similar, but it's not like the exact same,

1382
01:15:16,160 --> 01:15:18,880
Speaker 2: but it's similar enough to the backhand. She just ripped

1383
01:15:18,920 --> 01:15:21,800
Speaker 2: it and I was like, all right, well, should have

1384
01:15:21,800 --> 01:15:22,679
Speaker 2: picked a different sport.

1385
01:15:22,720 --> 01:15:26,360
Speaker 1: Alexis so humbling.

1386
01:15:27,040 --> 01:15:27,280
Speaker 2: Man.

1387
01:15:27,439 --> 01:15:30,280
Speaker 1: Well look Alexis, thank you so much for joining me.

1388
01:15:30,439 --> 01:15:32,559
Speaker 1: You're out numbered in your household. I love this for you.

1389
01:15:35,200 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 1: Good luck argument, good like. I feel like that allotitz

1390
01:15:39,520 --> 01:15:43,800
Speaker 1: negotiation is just really a sign of how the rest

1391
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:45,960
Speaker 1: of that is all going to track. So I can't

1392
01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:47,840
Speaker 1: wait to Sadares chart because she's going to hit you

1393
01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:49,559
Speaker 1: about twenty bucks a week because inflation.

1394
01:15:49,680 --> 01:15:52,960
Speaker 2: But and she's going to have her mama and her

1395
01:15:53,080 --> 01:15:54,519
Speaker 2: sister on her side too.

1396
01:15:54,920 --> 01:15:56,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

1397
01:15:56,760 --> 01:15:59,160
Speaker 2: I knew I was. I just knew I was destined

1398
01:15:59,160 --> 01:16:05,360
Speaker 2: to have daughters. And it is awesome. As as trying

1399
01:16:05,439 --> 01:16:08,080
Speaker 2: as it can be at times to always be wrong,

1400
01:16:08,760 --> 01:16:13,439
Speaker 2: it is. It is always. It's just it's so easy

1401
01:16:13,479 --> 01:16:15,840
Speaker 2: to just fall in love with those little girls. All

1402
01:16:15,880 --> 01:16:18,120
Speaker 2: over again, every single time. And I got buddies and

1403
01:16:18,240 --> 01:16:20,679
Speaker 2: all my childhood fends. We all got kids now, and

1404
01:16:20,720 --> 01:16:22,120
Speaker 2: you know, some of them got boys and girls, some

1405
01:16:22,160 --> 01:16:24,000
Speaker 2: of them all boys. And I see these little dudes

1406
01:16:24,080 --> 01:16:26,280
Speaker 2: running around, and I'm just like, what's I like this?

1407
01:16:26,560 --> 01:16:28,400
Speaker 2: And my dad looks at me. He's like, yeah, you were.

1408
01:16:28,600 --> 01:16:30,639
Speaker 2: You were like that, just a terror, just run around,

1409
01:16:30,640 --> 01:16:33,280
Speaker 2: and I'm like, these little angels here, they're the best.

1410
01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:36,200
Speaker 1: Well that's dope. All right, Well, thank you again for

1411
01:16:36,280 --> 01:16:49,400
Speaker 1: joining me. I appreciate you. Time now for this week's

1412
01:16:49,479 --> 01:16:54,160
Speaker 1: viewer slash listener question. This question comes from Mark Walker. Hey, Jamil,

1413
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:57,080
Speaker 1: I have a question, how difficult is it to cover

1414
01:16:57,160 --> 01:17:00,320
Speaker 1: a male sport being a female sports reporterer? Has that

1415
01:17:00,360 --> 01:17:04,640
Speaker 1: gotten more difficult post Trump? With this maga cult mentality,

1416
01:17:04,800 --> 01:17:08,439
Speaker 1: with being a minority reporter. Well, Mark, the parts of

1417
01:17:08,439 --> 01:17:10,479
Speaker 1: my job that are difficult, and I'm saying this more

1418
01:17:10,520 --> 01:17:13,280
Speaker 1: as a commentary on our entire industry, have less to

1419
01:17:13,320 --> 01:17:16,600
Speaker 1: do with gender and how that is impacted by the

1420
01:17:16,640 --> 01:17:19,200
Speaker 1: Trump error, and it has more to do with how

1421
01:17:19,280 --> 01:17:23,160
Speaker 1: his presence has so easily made us abdicate our responsibilities

1422
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:25,840
Speaker 1: as journalists overall. Now, there are certain things as a

1423
01:17:25,840 --> 01:17:27,840
Speaker 1: women you have to deal with when you're a sports reporter.

1424
01:17:28,240 --> 01:17:30,920
Speaker 1: And these things didn't just surface because of Donald Trump.

1425
01:17:31,040 --> 01:17:33,760
Speaker 1: You know you'll be doubted more. People will assume every

1426
01:17:33,760 --> 01:17:37,320
Speaker 1: woman in this job isn't knowledgeable. There will be an

1427
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:41,040
Speaker 1: often uncomfortable emphasis on the way that you look. We

1428
01:17:41,200 --> 01:17:43,120
Speaker 1: just have to deal in general, with a lot of

1429
01:17:43,160 --> 01:17:47,240
Speaker 1: double standards. But for the most part, dealing with athletes, coaches, teams,

1430
01:17:47,400 --> 01:17:50,519
Speaker 1: and owners isn't nearly as problematic as it used to

1431
01:17:50,600 --> 01:17:52,639
Speaker 1: be for women reporters. I mean, there are women before

1432
01:17:52,640 --> 01:17:54,920
Speaker 1: me who can tell you some real horror stories. I mean,

1433
01:17:54,920 --> 01:17:57,719
Speaker 1: there was a time when those men in those professional

1434
01:17:57,800 --> 01:18:00,880
Speaker 1: settings truly resented our present, and they made it know.

1435
01:18:01,200 --> 01:18:02,960
Speaker 1: It's so much better now than it used to be.

1436
01:18:03,720 --> 01:18:06,400
Speaker 1: But the fans, however, that's kind of another story. A

1437
01:18:06,439 --> 01:18:08,640
Speaker 1: lot of them are abusive. On any given day, some

1438
01:18:08,720 --> 01:18:10,599
Speaker 1: fan will tell me either to go back to Africa

1439
01:18:10,760 --> 01:18:13,320
Speaker 1: or go right for good housekeeping. I mean, women in media,

1440
01:18:13,400 --> 01:18:16,479
Speaker 1: especially women of color, take a ton of abuse, especially

1441
01:18:16,560 --> 01:18:18,560
Speaker 1: on social media, which is an element I didn't have

1442
01:18:18,600 --> 01:18:21,200
Speaker 1: to deal with for most of my career. But Trump's presence,

1443
01:18:21,520 --> 01:18:24,519
Speaker 1: it's ushered in an era of cooperation and complicity by

1444
01:18:24,560 --> 01:18:27,120
Speaker 1: the media. Remember, the morale of the media is to disrupt,

1445
01:18:27,200 --> 01:18:29,280
Speaker 1: not capitulate. That's why when the owners of The Washington

1446
01:18:29,320 --> 01:18:31,640
Speaker 1: Post and the Los Angeles Times intervened to stop their

1447
01:18:31,760 --> 01:18:34,800
Speaker 1: editorial boards from endorsing Kamala Harris, it was just enough

1448
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:37,479
Speaker 1: front to the reason why most of us became journalists.

1449
01:18:37,560 --> 01:18:40,680
Speaker 1: You know, our job is to comfort the afflicted and

1450
01:18:40,840 --> 01:18:44,360
Speaker 1: afflict the comfortable. We're supposed to challenge authority, not a

1451
01:18:44,400 --> 01:18:46,160
Speaker 1: bow to it. Thank you for your question.

1452
01:18:46,400 --> 01:18:46,639
Speaker 2: Mark.

1453
01:18:47,320 --> 01:18:49,640
Speaker 1: Now, if any of you guys out there would like

1454
01:18:49,680 --> 01:18:51,880
Speaker 1: to ask me a question, you can email your question

1455
01:18:52,200 --> 01:18:54,640
Speaker 1: or send me a video with your question. But if

1456
01:18:54,640 --> 01:18:56,720
Speaker 1: you send me a video, make sure that it is

1457
01:18:56,800 --> 01:18:59,960
Speaker 1: thirty seconds or less. So send your questions to spot

1458
01:19:00,000 --> 01:19:03,960
Speaker 1: Politics twenty twenty four at gmail dot com. That's Politics

1459
01:19:03,960 --> 01:19:07,880
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four at gmail dot com. That's s PO

1460
01:19:08,640 --> 01:19:11,240
Speaker 1: l I t I c s. Also make sure you

1461
01:19:11,280 --> 01:19:15,400
Speaker 1: follow spolitics pod on Instagram and on TikTok. A new

1462
01:19:15,439 --> 01:19:19,440
Speaker 1: episode is Politics drops every Thursday on iHeart or wherever

1463
01:19:19,640 --> 01:19:23,400
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. This is politics where sports and

1464
01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:28,559
Speaker 1: politics don't just mix, they matter. Spolitics is the production

1465
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:32,320
Speaker 1: of iHeart podcasts and the Unbothered Network. I'm Your Host

1466
01:19:32,479 --> 01:19:37,040
Speaker 1: Jamel Hill. Executive producer is Taylor Shakoigne. Lucas Hymen is

1467
01:19:37,080 --> 01:19:41,439
Speaker 1: head of Audio and executive producer. Megan Armstrong is associate producer.

1468
01:19:41,760 --> 01:19:45,519
Speaker 1: Original music for Spolitics provided by Kyle Visz from wiz

1469
01:19:45,680 --> 01:19:46,160
Speaker 1: FX