April 21, 2025 • 53 mins
In today’s episode, Ashlyn talks shop with multi-media journalist, host, and women’s sports and culture amplifier Arielle Chambers. The two bond over their shared love of North Carolina and the power of telling women’s stories. Ari explains what it was like to grow up next to the game, and what made her realize she needed to stay.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi, everyone, Welcome back to another week of Wide Open
with Ashlyn Harris. Our guest today, which is the one
and only Ari Chambers. Welcome to Wide Open, Honey. It's
so good to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I can't wait to get wide open with you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You are my favorite, honestly. Your energy. I mean no
wonder You're so successful. You're so sweet, kind, warm, and
everything in between. And I always every time I'm around you,
I'm just like so attracted to your energy.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's interesting that energy off.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's it's nothing to be warm, and it's such a
cold world. It's cold weather, cold people, cold instances. Why
not get warm?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I love that about you, which is probably why you've
been so successful in everything that you do. So I'm
just gonna broaden your freaking CVS grocery list hilarious things
you do, honey, because I tell you what you do
it all. There's there is no one that I know
can be in so many places at one time. I'm like,
how do you? But do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I can sleep like a baby on a plane. Everybody's
like I sleep like fifteen hours a day, stuff like
I will. I will knock out before boarding even ends.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So for people, the people who are watching and listening
who don't know you, Ari. You are a women's sports
multimedia journal. Yes, so unpack that a little bit for
you know, the viewers and the listeners who may not
know exactly what that means and what you do, What
are you doing, what's going on in your life right now?
(01:46):
Let's just break the ice there.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
My passion is amplification of women period here and so
whatever the vehicle for that is is where I go. So,
whether that's storytelling, whether that's now my job has me
in the analyst seat, which is like a push for me.
But I'm learning and I'm continuing to be a student
of the game no matter which game it is. I
love being a part of the game on the field,
(02:09):
in the studio. And I marry myself to that passion
instead of a job title or instead of a network
Say that again, I marry myself to my passion. I
marry myself to my passion. It is true because everything
else is so disposable, right, But something that gets you
out of bed in the morning, something that really pulls
up your heartstrings, you can't really get rid of that,
and it makes you be able to fall forward and
(02:34):
fall on your feet when you walk the path that
you're supposed to walk. So that's where I'm at with work.
My official title, I work at ESPN. I'm a commentator
and an analyst and host. But I also love being
out in the community. I love bridging the gap between
youth sports and pro sports. I love, you know, working
(02:54):
with different leagues to help them with their reach of
women and other demographics that have been underserved. I love
giving back to my school. I took the w n
B A to my high school two years ago, a
sponsored by Wilson, and I had a signature ball with them.
And so just being able to go back to my
community and and build up the foundation that built me
up is most important to me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
That's so special and I think we all see that
in your work, and I think that's such a gift.
You are such a gift to women's sports. And before
we dive in to that drive and that passion, and
I consider it like you're disruptor, girl. That's why we are.
We do what we got we got because we're not
(03:35):
here following in line, following the order like we are.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Disruptors will never be not one to fall in line exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
But before we dive in, because I want to know
your like your origin story. I want to know why
you tick this way. I want to know why you
chose this path. And there's so much about your childhood
that has shaped you into this person who continues to elevate, amplify,
(04:06):
disrupt women's sports. But before we do that on this show,
before we do that, where's my wine?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Honey? Up, she's right here.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Before we do that on this show, is that she
likes to just you know, get the party started.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Turn because if she knows me, she knows that comes straight,
you know. So we've got I come strap.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well that's a heavy pore. I would ask you if
you want some, but I know you're in like hardcore training.
So you're adering for the boat.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And you run a five k and people think you
can run.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's like, girl, I'm not running unless someone's chasing me.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So that's right. I'm just trying to get a participation,
and nowadays I'm trying to get a participation.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
We don't do participation trophies around here. We'll cheers, my love,
thank you, Okay, welcome to Wide Open.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's funny because when you were before our toast you said,
why did you choose it? I don't think I chose this.
I was. It's that nature verse nurture thing, and I
think that I was nurtured to love everything about myself
and the strong woman who raised me, and so I
always had an affinity of women, in appreciation of women,
(05:24):
and I never was placed under a circumstance where we
were without or we didn't deserve to be at the
top position. I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and
so if you know anything about right you're nine one night.
First of all basketball, yes, but soccer too, like I
was able to witness the greatest of the great between
NC State Duke and uncle, you know what it is.
(05:49):
And then my cheer gym was on Western Boulevard, which
is there's a huge soccer field, and so just being
able to grow up next to the game, whether that
be cheerleading in the highest level. Because Kathy Bucky owned
my cheer gym, and she is a historic figure in cheerleading.
She invented the wolf wall. They mentioned him even though
the level four pyramid and had level six, but that's
(06:10):
his store for so we did that. And then I
took field trips to NC State women's basketball games, and
so I saw coach k Yao and I saw the
legacy that she was leaving. She was building actually at
that time, and the basketball team was so nice to me,
and I remember them signing. Back then you could get
physical trading cards when you walk through the door and
(06:33):
just give them to the two athletes they signed it,
and I was able to be on the player tunnel,
and so I did a couple of those and it
was it was a lasting impression on me, how nice
they were to me, and it had nothing to do
with the sport of basketball. I fell in love with
the athletes right. So fast forward, my best friend, one
of my best friends was a professional jumper. She ran
(06:54):
track at U and C but she ended up jumping professional.
I can never finish that. I went to intated around
It's always a.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
But.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And then my other best friend played professional basketball, but
she played undergrad at WEAK and I was just seeing
how they were coming up in a place where their
stories weren't being told. Then I get to my professional
career and we're going to get to that. But I
was a professional cheerleader and did not see the same
coverage for the Liberty as I did the Knicks, and
I just thought that was completely inappropriate. So as I'm
(07:29):
looking back on my life into a little Ari who
grew up around nothing but women's greatness. I grew up
in a very comfortable upbringing, so it wasn't like I
was without so I always knew within me that I
had enough to be at the highest position. Because I
only saw women in super high positions.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It just shows you representation matter. It's so important for
you as a child. Me as a child, all of
us young women who look very different, were able to
see ourselves in these women so we can achieve the
same greatness. And I really admire that because I grew
(08:09):
up in a really small town satellite Beach, Florida, and
I didn't see people like me. I didn't get to
see women on TV. I didn't have college campuses like
close where I could go see women's sports. So it
is so important that you had that at an age.
(08:29):
And now I fast forward to these young girls growing
up now and women's sports is really heating up and
will definitely get to that, but they get to turn that.
They get to turn the TV on and see people
like yourself, people like me.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Access is the key factor. And it's funny because I am,
to my core a cheerleaders, so I love to cheer
other people on. But the representation factor, I like to
decenter myself because I think that athlete storytelling is about
the athlete, but I will assume the responsibility the role
that I am being a representation for somebody out there
(09:11):
that needs it. And so it's a it's a beautiful
dichotomy when you when you look at both sides of it,
being able to remove yourself because it's not about me, right,
it's about it's about you all stories. It's about the
people who are really grinding it out there on every
level who are unheard. But there's also a different part
of it where it's like it's my responsibility to show
(09:32):
up and be a little bit front facing, even a
lot of bit front facing, to show, hey, if you
love sports, you can find other avenues to stay in
it through a professional lens and still have that reward.
And the reward to me looks like seeing the smiles
of people who haven't had their story being told, or
(09:53):
seeing the audience say I didn't know that about them,
or having a player really stripped down to their most
vulnerable self and like even get a mo she know
when they're talking to me. That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And I think that that's so special because we're just
now twenty twenty five. You know, twenty twenty four was
a huge breakthrough for us in women's sports, but like
we're really just seeing it take off, and it's taken
this long.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I just when I walk into games and I see
Val Ackerman there, I don't understand how everybody doesn't fangirl off.
Lachina Robinson has been somebody who if I didn't have
a Lachina on my side, I don't know where I
would be. She is the one who is like, women's
basketball needs you, women's basketball needs us, and she has.
(10:39):
I guarantee you ninety percent of the young talent that
you see on TV right now are children of Lachina.
Yes right, we all come from La China. And even
when I first started my platform, I'm thankful for you
who came in didn't know, like we didn't know each
other like we were. We didn't know each other, but
you believed in what I was doing enough that you
(11:00):
open up space for me to tell your story or
for me to showcase a part of your story, and
I'm thankful for athletes like that who you know, might
not be as familiar but are willing to be open
and be accepting of new faces in this and so
that we can be the building blocks for the next generation.
I'm thankful for every iteration with the like the basketball
(11:25):
players of the WBL from like nineteen seventy two, the
title nine like pioneers. There obviously Women's Sports Foundation, Billy
jing King, but everybody around that who's been pushing the
game forward. We owe it to. Billy came up to
me and said, here's the baton, take it and run.
And when Billy jin King tells you to take a
baton and run, you run. She tells me to swing
(11:45):
the record. I don't know about it, but she told
me to take a baton and run. And I have
the responsibility. We have the responsibility to make the ones
who came before us proud. We have the responsibility to
look at the landscape of women's sports and know that
now we have the platform and the power to continue
to push it forward because we're not where we need
to be. There's a really big facade Ashland, and I
(12:06):
don't know if you've seen the discussion around women's sports
about like we've made it. No we haven't.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
No, we have.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Like even even on the basketball side, one of the
most popular women's sports arguably commercially, I go outside of
the top programs of the Power five, like the top
of the Power five. When you leave that, it can
still be in the Power five. I'm looking, like, where's
the audience we have to fill these seats? And this
is Power five basketball, Like just imagine all the other
(12:33):
women's sports introduced that are fighting for equality or fighting
for equity, or fighting for coverage, fighting for visibility, fighting
for just any type of intention behind them. We have
so much to do.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So yeah, we have, and that's yes we do, I think,
but we don't stop because we're so used to fighting
because we're so used to struggle. We've gotten so comfortable
and struggle that we don't celebrate the small when but
we do have to celebrate that perspective.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I mean, we got year over year, like a lot
of sports are in the millions. We love that here
and then we see that like even at major major networks,
they're starting to pay attention. There's starting to be show
development around so many women's sports leagues. And I'm not
denying that, like the social media impact, the network impact,
just players understanding their own brands now and being able
(13:25):
to be bold enough to put themselves out of there.
I remember when we were we were worried about outing
SUPERB you know what I mean, we were like v
vocal at ESPN. We had to talk about like should
it be released? And I'm like the protectiveness that we've
had over women athletes. Now everybody can exhale because every
can be themselves and that's a beautiful thing. So yeah,
(13:46):
growth and vulnerability and openness is.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And with that, I'll say this. We always on this
show start with a very very important question. What is
the moment, Like there has to be this one moment
that split you wide open that changed everything for you.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
This is layered. I have I have two so steep too. Yeah. Three,
So my moment of purpose that must like just completely
split me wide open and really changed the trajectory I
would argue of my entire career. And why I do
it is Liliana. She was this little girl who went
viral for standing in front of the Maya War poster
(14:31):
for Jordan Brand with her arms out stretched, and she
got invited to the twenty eighteen WNBA All Star Game
in Minnesota, and I met her and she put my
media pass around her neck. And then the next day
I saw her dad at the mall and he said,
all Lilliana can say is daddy, she has hair just
like mine. Oh, and I still can't tell that story
without getting choked up. It's literally been seven years now.
(14:53):
So that reaffirmed my purpose of representation. As far as
purpose of storytelling, twenty twenty was hard for everybody. And
there was this one moment with the Jacob Blake shooting
and I had to do it an Alison Felix's interview
and she was a mom of a baby at the time,
(15:16):
and I just just kept thinking about her child and
how she had raised a black child in this world,
and I just couldn't make it through the interview, and
she was so graceful with it. I'm like, you're the
one who's having to raise it, but I broke down,
and it just it showed that these stories these athletes
are are beyond just athletes. They they have real life things.
(15:40):
And Allison showed up during that time to do the
interview knowing that she is a mother to a black
child in this world and so that that's wide open,
wide open. And another situation from that year was Tierra
Ruff and Pratt. She played for the sparks of the time.
(16:00):
She was talking to me about police brutality and her
cousin got murdered at the hands of the police on
her draft night, and I think that was one of
the first times she's ever shared that story, and so
we were able to show the importance and how it's
not just some far fetched narrative that's happening. I'm just
thankful for those moments because it just showed that the
storytelling is important, and it was almost cathartic to everybody involved,
(16:23):
who were able to just say, this is what happened
to me, this is why this moment in culture matters
to me, and this is how I'm having to show
up in a world that doesn't always appreciate me.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's powerful and that's heavy. And I think in my
truth of knowing you now for the short amount of
time I do, I really find that you have a
special gift to see people and make them feel safe.
(16:58):
You know, when I think back to your childhood and
you're a cheerleader, what part of because it's such a
technical sport, right, and it's a team sport, but also
you're very alone in a lot of ways, and so
much of the energy is synced with the people around you.
(17:21):
How has that really affected who you are now in
this profession?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So cheerleading, I only did competitive cheerleading until later in life.
Then I started cheering four people. But cheerleading teaches you teamwork, discipline,
goal orientation. So if you're a stunting there are three
people under one person, right, And we had this one
rule at my cheer gym. The flyer does not hit
(17:48):
the ground. And if even her pinky hit the ground,
we would be outside on Western Boulevard, running up and
down the street, bear crawling on the mat. It's crazy,
but that just showed me that in order for something
that we all have a goal to keep up top
to hit the ground, all three of us would have
had to not do our jobs. And so it just
(18:09):
makes you hold it like yourself accountable for keeping something up.
And the flyer up top is not just coasting there.
They have to hold their weight. And so it taught
me as a leader, if you're the top girl, you
have to hold your weight. Still, you have to make
it easier for the people who are holding you up.
And so that was a good lesson for me in
(18:31):
how to keep something together, keep a team together, and
if we drop, that's a disappointment to the whole team. Again,
all people would have to do their job wrong in
order for that stunt to fall. And I just I
don't believe in that. It's funny because I was so
early coming here, and I was telling our girl that
(18:53):
I think lateness is a character flaw, and that's from cheerleading.
If we were second late, we'd be up and down
the street. Yeah, resolutely, And sports teaches you that and
cheerleading you're not going to get a hundred. You're not
gonna get a score of one hundred. I'm not gonna
go down how they are scored. But even if you
hit zero, even if everything is technically sound, you're not
(19:14):
going to get that one hundred. And so it's just
do the best you can in the most prestine way,
in the most precise way, and just aim for your best.
And so it taught me to aim for the best
that you can do the best execution. It taught me
that you can't do the small things wrong because it
will result in a fall or in just a tumble bust.
(19:37):
It taught me teamwork. It taught me, Hey, if you
see your teammates having a bad day again, it goes
back to the stunt groups. Something's gonna go haywire. If
they're like not focused in the tumbling section, you could
collide and literally die. And it's a very dangerous sport.
So the detail, orientation and just the discipline really which
all is together you to a t.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So people don't know Ari that you were a professional
cheerleader for the NIXT and that opened the door to
the liberty. Tell me about that. Tell me what that
was like when you had a front row seat to
watching the inequities and the gap between watching men play
(20:24):
basketball and cheering for them and they're you know, probably
where were you Madison Square Garden. And now you get
the opportunity to see the w n b A, which
is the longest standing professional like Women's league. Am I correct?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It is great?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It is Come on me, So I just what was
that like for you?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Okay, So everybody tries to over strategize this. I literally
went to a game with my friend, a Connecticut versus
New York game at MSG in twenty fourteen, I saw
that they had cheerleaders. I was like, I really want
to be on torch patrol. I reached out to the
entertainment director. She made me do a full season of
The Knicks first. Ye who knows why, but anyway, because
that was not what I wanted to do, but I
(21:13):
did it so I can do Liberty because I wanted
to see my friends who played in the league all
the time, like I wanted to cheer for them. Like
it was that simple. But then Madison Square Garden is
the world's most famous arena. Yes, and you have the
top one hundred and forty four athletes going in and
out of the world's most famous arena, and there are
five media members you can count on hand. It was
(21:33):
like Doug Feinberg, Erica, Ala Vocal, and Lauren from Beyond
the W and then like one or two others, right,
Howard mcdoll. Yeah, And I was like, is thatybody good?
Like I remember there was an Olympic showcase there and
I just did not understand why people didn't want to
talk about my friends. That's it, Like that's where it
(21:54):
was right there. It wasn't like a oh my God,
I must push this, this women's sports forward. I was like,
why is nobody caring about my friends? And so what
I would do When I made the decision, I was like, Okay,
I can talk about them. I have a phone, I
can post online about it. And so I would meet
them at their hotel room before the game or after
and I would record. I don't know if I should
be telling people for advice, but like, I mean, if
(22:16):
you have a relationship to do it, yeah, But I
would put my phone up in a conference room and
record and they would open up. Like Lasa Clarendon was
one of the first ones that really shared their story
with me and posting them. They picked up traction and
I did it for more and more people, and I
made a lot more friends. And there was a lot
(22:36):
of distrust between like the league in pr and things
like that going in because they're like, who is this
girl just infiltrating and then she's over here doing T
shirt tosses during the time I imagine consuming and I'm
like throwing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
A shirt girls seventeen Bear.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Hated when I threw the shirt over the anyway, I
love it anyway, But they started taking me more and
more seriously because I continue to do it, and there's
a lot of proving yourself and I would never want
somebody to go through the links that I had to
go through to prove myself and having to Like I
started off on camera, then I had to write because
people needed to know that I knew about the game.
(23:15):
And then I like I would do a lot of
film setting I sold like instruments to get to where
I needed to go, like I couldn't afford anything, Like
I would take the pregame meals home just to eat,
like just so I can fund my way to different
things because I was independent. And then Howard Megdal gave
(23:36):
me an opportunity. It was called the Summon at the
time some of hoops and now it's the next and
then La China Robinson guided me. But outside of like
a few of them, nobody helped. And then I crowdsourced
my way to the final four. Finally in what twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, and Corey Close, UCLA women's basketball head coach,
actually gave me quite a bit of money. And one
(23:59):
of my favorite Twitter family, pretty Rikibu, gave me a
nice chunk of change to go and that was my
first time knowing that people are believing in my mission.
But again, this was four years of work before I
even got to be able to crowdsource to get there. Wow,
And so people don't see that part. But I didn't choose.
I didn't strategically choose. I was like, nobody's talking about
my people, why not? And then the way I started
(24:21):
talking about other women's sports and having a call in
with that is I was complaining to somebody, my girl,
she plays softball, about WNBA salary and she literally laughed
at me and she said, we make five thousand a
year and I said, oh my god, we have so
much more to go. And then I was like, what's
soccer talking about? Y'all over here on the front lines
of everything, what's soccer talking about? And I have candidly
(24:42):
never really been big on soccer outside of like idolizing
the ones that like played in North Carolina. Obviously you
and Cee whatever Go Health was a powerhouse.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Still I'm glad we're still friends anyway, it still is.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
But like, outside of that admiration and the courage Admira,
I never really got into soccer like that. But the
soccer community opened up their arms to me and then
I found different levels of advocacy there and so I
was like, oh, this is this is so much work
to do, but let's let's stay fueled doing it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I love that this is wide open and I'm your host,
Ashlyn Harris. We'll be right back. So you were the
founder of Highlighter and that became a big deal. It
(25:38):
really did. Like it was everywhere your content was, everywhere
social media was taking off. You were taking off. You
started to go viral based on a tweet you put out,
and what was that tweet?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So the tweet had actually nothing to do with Highlighter.
It was before that. The WNBA is so important because
no over strategy. I just said exactly what I was thinking.
And then it just became a repeated occurrence because the
w WA never stopped being important, and then I needed
to widen it. And so when I saw something dope
happened in another sport, I was like energy with four
(26:12):
wise and it just it just stuck, right, So these
things just stuck with Highlighter. I created it to be
a community to uplift and empower girls and women in sport,
no matter the age level, ability your sport, and I
wanted it to make it so that the ash On
Harrises of the world could be showcased, but also your
next door neighbor who does dope stuff. I wanted to
make it so that your favorite athlete is great, but
(26:35):
your upcoming rapper is on it too. I wanted it
to be a space for all girls and all women
and all non binary people to feel great, which is
you know, question why I named it highlighter, but neither
here nor there. But I wanted to be a space
where people felt seen the Hattan before and very intentional
on not just the top names. Like the top names
(26:57):
y'all are great, love y'all so much, I got a look,
but like also the ones who get overlooked. So as
we're talking about, you know, a high D one power five,
I'm also talking about my girl over here who goes
to HBCU that's averaging a quadruple double. So there are
things like that that I wanted to sprinkle in and
and it I had a great run there.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I love that for you, though, but it really it
was it created the foundation for you to take off
and to really have this level of I would say,
like fame and your life has changed quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Changed so significantly. I never could have imagined. No, I
never could have imagine. But what I love that you
said about that is it kickstarted it. But like Highlighter,
was never about me. It was about the community, right,
So I am okay with leaving it in the hands.
I hired my best friend candidly, because guys do it,
why not, like it's the girls club. Who I hired
my best friend, And I hired another girl, Jasmine, who
(27:56):
she had been working in the women's sports space with
me when I used to go down and cover the mystics,
and I saw how hard she worked on the ground too.
So between Krishan, Jason and me, it was a three
person team for a long time. Well first it was
me for two and a half years, and then I
got to hire two and I hired the people I
knew and I loved, and so I was able to
leave it with them. I love that, and it just
became the basis for other people to take it and
(28:18):
interpret it how they wanted to. But again, I like
whatever said at the beginning, I marry myself to my passion.
I'm not married to a singular platform or place. I'm
married to the cause. I love that, and I'm going
to continue to build. And everybody says, oh, do you
feel like you made it? No, I'm nowhere near where
I made it. I'll appreciate the small wins, but there's
(28:40):
no making it. When it comes to this, it won't
be in my lifetime. But if I can just continue
to add every single day until the end of my time,
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I love that. So you are the founder of Highlighter,
you get to pick the stories you get. You are
the boss, and now you're working with ESPN. Like that's
a big difference. You're not the boss anymore. You're not
You're not picking.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
You're not, No, you.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Are You're not picking the stories, You're not picking the
Like what is that transition?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Like?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Because you're the ownership to choose what you what stories
you want that are meaningful, that you think are important.
Now you're with you know, a big gun like ESPN.
How has that shifted? Like? Is that hard? Is that
you know, pushing you outside of your comfort zone now
(29:33):
because you have so many other things you have to
do that you probably don't necessarily always get a choice
in what what does it?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
How is that I have never lived in a comfort zone.
I don't even know what company comfort fact. No, it
was the most jarring adjustment ever. But I am thankful
that ESPN has a respect for me to listen to
my opinion when I do have them. I have great producers,
great assignment editors to know my intention. It was very
(30:02):
clear when I signed I only wanted to do women's sports.
I made it very clear.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
You always make that clear.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Like football, I'm like, no, absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
They're okay over there, trust me.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So it's it's it's teaching me to slow down and
when I do get opportunities, make the biggest punch out
of them. I had unlimited opportunity at my former employer,
but the scale that you can deliver a message just
is just exponentially more when it comes to ESPN. It's
a worldwide leader of sports, so like it just becomes
(30:35):
so much grander. And the opportunities that I've gotten, Like
my first sideline rep for ESPN was or for basketball
at ESPN was playoffs Game one at Barclays, Like that
was my first opportunity. So there's no comfort zone here.
They're just gonna be like here, And it teaches me, like, hey,
you got to be prepared. You got to stay prepared.
(30:55):
This is not an innovative space in the way that
you have created for yourself. Now you have to challenge
yourself to like study in ways that you haven't before.
Not saying I wasn't studying before. I was absolutely studying,
but like in something that is not supernatural to me.
I'm a special features girl. I love sit down storytelling,
and they're like, okay, great analyst in studio. My first
(31:19):
w NBA accountdown was ABC right after or right before
Indiana Seattle. We don't want to we don't want to ESPN.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
News million years, but like, but it teaches you a
lot about what you're willing to do to be successful.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Everybody is so hard on us as front facing people.
The world doesn't realize that y'all are watching us practice.
We don't get to practice in a comfortable small space.
We practice on the biggest stages, and we fail on
the biggest stages. We succeed on the biggest stages too,
But people see when I don't do well and they'll
(31:59):
tell you, no, tweet at you. Yeah, they'll tell you
every single time. And I've had to learn. Andre Carter
actually says this all the time. It's never as good
as you think it is, and it's never as bad
as you think it is. I think Dorisbourger told her that,
and then she what she gave me the advice of
is call your friends up and asked did I sound
like myself? And that's where you love that, like did
(32:20):
I sound like me? Did I make sense? Did I?
And that's what I that's the only opinion that I
take a new account. And I like to give myself grades,
and I literally have never given myself over a B.
So that's you know, internal work.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But I are all so critical on our.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
SR but ESPN has pushed me completely out of my
comfort zone. And I'm so thankful for the growth that
I've been able to have, and I hope that I
will continue to grow and be better.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
What You're great, You're fantastic. You don't get to where
you are right now without being incredibly good at what
you do.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You dedicate your life to telling other people's stories.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
What about you? What about you like?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
What what about your like?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
How do you take care of yourself?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I love doing like circ fitness, I love like the
anti gravity yoga and let us going upside down. I
am inherently upside down. It used to be playing with
my dog, but he just passed, and it's really really
hard for me because he's been there since college. He
was fifteen, wow, and so I mean he was there
from like the dorm days, and it was hard for
a lot of people from college, like you. Tiger had
(33:32):
an impact. But I'm rediscovering what it looks like to
pour into me now because I, first of all, I
have never been great with it, but I'm still figuring
it out. I am now taking up running because I'm
clearly a masochist and I clearly want to be in pain.
But distance running is something that I picked up in
(33:52):
the pandemic and kind of stopped and let go of
myself because of different life situations. But now picking back
up in twenty twenty five and end of you know
the month, I'll be at what four or five k's
which is ridiculous, wow, but I love it. I guess
two of them were under thirty degree weather.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So well, are you finding time to date? Are you
finding time to we.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Keep our personal person?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Do we my personal personal? I love it?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
But are you finding time to really like live life
and not through the lens of interviewing other people, but yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I don't think so. And well, I'll find it. I'll
find it, and I am not. I am doing the
best I can with the perspective that I have on life.
And I moved into my dream apartment now show and
that's a that's a culmination of my hard work. My
(34:52):
agent told me I needed to spend my money, and
I don't necessarily spend all flashy things, and so I
spent it on my home. And I have a good
home and and I have people that care a lot
about me. My goal for twenty twenty four sounds so minute.
No it doesn't. I'm not going to diminish it. But
I said, I want to pour into my friends more so,
I was able to go to my friend's weddings, like
Kelsey trainor Monica McNutt. I was able to go to
(35:12):
their weddings. And Monica is the first one. I keep
a great tribe around me. Monica's like, have you rested?
Did you take time off? Are you on vacation while
you aren't? You by water and she literally forced a
vacation on me. All the time. I'm like, you need
frends like that, actually don't work.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I need friends, like.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
And we went to Miami and we stepped out a
little bit. We did like a couple of days in
that basil, but then both of us were like, we're
gonna actually leave early. I texted you, I saw you.
You were there and you were like thirty six hours
but it was it was it. I need to keep
people around like that because they make it. No, like
I need to keep you around and to keep Monica
(35:46):
around because rest is important. It's just important and it
is productive.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Are you gonna burn out?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I've burnt out years ago. I keep getting fueled because
there's so much work to do. But I should be
work driven. I'm trying. I'm trying to be more balanced
driven and like pouring into my friends.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Like I just what the fuck is balance? I don't know, child,
but everyone always talked about balance. I'm like, what is balance?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No? But I was really proud because in December I
was able to spend three days with my best friend
Laki via boy Kid for the first time since high school,
three days straight for the first time since high school.
That's great. I graduated fifteen years ago, so like, what
am I doing? But that happened, and then every year
(36:27):
I have a Christmas party with like my friend Krishan Williams.
She was my best friends or she still is my
best friend since we were five, and so me, her
and Jasmine, we all come together.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And you need it, you need you need time away
from the game. And I I've had to learn that
the hard way because I wrapped so much of my
identity and who I was into the sport I played,
and it's I am so much more than what I did,
and I'm having to relearn so much of life through
(37:02):
another lens of not suffering and not I have this complex.
I always think someone's working harder than me, so it's
like I never rest. Like joy doesn't come easy for
people like us. It just doesn't, because the second you
stop and enjoy your environment and what you're doing, someone's
(37:23):
already passed you. So we have this mindset of when
we do have these beautiful milestones or successes in our life,
the next day we wake up, we're like, great, we
did that, what's next?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
And it's a really not so great way to live
life because you get to a point where it's past
you and you're like, but did I enjoy it. This
is wide open and I'm your host, Ashlyn Harris. We'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I have two stories. The first one we were in Atlanta.
I was getting my makeup done and I just got
to spread this huge, like eight page spread about the
WB is so important. It was like a huge feature,
and my makeup or was like, that's great, and then
I was just like, oh, this is great, Like I
thought that I was celebrating it, and he was like,
it's so sad because you get so down but you
never get so high. He's like, I feel bad for you,
(38:27):
and that like stuck with me. And it was like,
you can get so low, but you never get so high.
And I just that sticks with me. But also your
bou thing told me that people like us are so
used to pain when it comes to like athletics and
like just overexertion and just being able to take a
hit and having to keep going through the pain and
(38:48):
through the suffering and through the conditioning, when life shouldn't
be like that. You shouldn't have to push through the
pain all the time. You shouldn't have to take the
pain all the time. And so that that really stuck,
I mean, shout out to love somebody.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I mean, Sofia is so wide, and.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
She was like, you should not as former athletes or
as humans in general, be so accustomed to pain all
the time and having to perform under pain all the time.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
It's true, and not only has she lived it in
her profession, she's experiencing it through my lens. So I'll
be like, let's go work out at the gym and
then we'll finish the warm up. I said, Okay, that's
the warm up, and she's like, that's a full lass workout.
You She's like, you don't have to suffer anymore. You
(39:35):
don't have to move at this speed. You don't have
to punish yourself, Like, just go for a fifteen minute walk, go,
you know, get your body moving like I'm we are.
So if I don't feel like shit the next day.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I'm not swe nothing.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I did nothing, it doesn't matter nothing.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
But it's it's a you really have to relearn the
way you move in the world. And so if he
is right, and she says this to me all the time,
it's like all or nothing for me, Like if I'm
not going all in, I'm not wasting my fucking time
doing it.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
It's just that if I get it, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, it's just it is. It's it's a really great
perspective on life. And now I'm really like, Oh, this
is what it feels to be happy. You know. We've
talked about this before. It's not about winning and losing.
It's about winning and learning, Like I am learning so
much right now, and I love that about our growth
(40:33):
and seeing us together and we have so many great conversations.
We had a panel not too long ago together, and
I think it's it's so important, and we have such
an obligation and a duty to not only tell the
stories of women in sports, but tell it correctly and
tell it in a way where we're not making it
(40:55):
about the way women look. We're making it about the
way women perform. And as much as it's about women's sports,
it's about sports like these are the best athletes in
the world that we get to sit in rooms with,
and how we decide to pick them apart in media
with a microphone in our mouth matters.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I love that you brought this up.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Let's talk, let's think because we have them going to
talk about this.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Who I'm gonna really like, hone down on this specific
topic because there I covered gymnastics to gymnastics is one
of my I would I would argue that's my favorite sports.
But yes, there's this this recurring theme of when you're
describing black gymnasts, everybody says powerful athletic things like those
(41:46):
type of words. When it when it when it's not
that they're any more powerful or anymore athletic, it's like
that's the only words that you used to describe them.
There's intentionality missing behind how people describe, or a laziness
behind people how people describe certain athletes. And so when
I get to be in rooms where I can listen
and learn about how athletes want to be presented, whether
(42:08):
that is about their parents, not about their parents, about
their skill set, how they want their skill set to
be discussed, I am so thankful that, like both of us,
we are so open to shifting our perspectives and taking
our bias, whether we know it or not, away from
our coverage and providing a new perspective to the entire
world about how these athletes feel like they're doing, feel
(42:31):
like they want to be represented in the stories that
are possible because if you go in there with a
certain rigid expectation or rigid perspective, you're not going to
get the richest story. And I think that we've been
able to get rich stories over the years, and rich
just spaces in this because we're open to hearing what
(42:54):
the athletes actually want and we're open to changing our
narratives that we're trying to push to.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I completely agree because I hear the way people are,
you know, talking about a lot of women in the
w n b A, and it's it's always so superficial.
It's always picking apart what they wore in the tunnel
or what they did outside of the game and how
(43:24):
their hair looked toward this And I'm like, Kaitlin Clark
is literally hitting threes from a fucking logo and you're
worried about her mini skirt she walked in, Like, but
honestly are we are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
There's space for both. But I also think that there's harmful,
like harm when it comes to you centering sexualized sexualized
athletes in well, sexualizing athletes period period, but like and
also centralizing trivial things when it relates to their game.
I think that there is space for a fashion situation
(43:57):
because like, obviously tunnel.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Sport is it's the center of culture, man, absolutely, but
we need to.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Just more intentionality between media members and things as little
as don't call it girls basketball if they're over eighteen,
like just it's women.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
It's women, it's women. Like even some of the shit,
Like I heard Shack say something the other I was like, Bro,
you've been around too long to be saying shit like that,
Like you've been around.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
You can't write it off as it's the old head.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
No, y'all have to be better. Stop stop. And I
know they advocate for women's sports, but they still.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
It's it's And it's confusing because you want to believe
that the activism is rooted in like altruism, and I
think it is. I just think that it's so like, oh,
this is how old heads talked and that was the
culture of back in the time. But there has to
be a growth element to how you speak about women now,
Like there just has to be. This is not the
nineties anymore. I mean just even listen to the music
(44:54):
back in the nineties. It was very uh, it was rapey.
It was very problem and we were jamming to we
didn't see anything wrong with it. But as you grow
as you know what's out there, what is right and
what's wrong. You have to you have to grow with
the times. And I think that a lot of these
old talking heads have to grow with the times. They
need to realize this is inappropriate, This is actually a problem,
(45:15):
This is actually inappropriate, And the power that you hold
you have to recognize. And so you're not shaving the
next generation to set them up to disrespect women and
women in sports.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I love that, and it it starts also with us.
It starts because we're in those rooms. And I think
for so long, when I've heard coaches say things and
things in the locker room, and when I'm in a
press conference and someone asked me some wild asked question
that is so ridiculous and has nothing to do with
the game or the performance, we just for so long
(45:50):
sat back and we're like, oh, we got to take that.
That's a part of it. And I love that now.
You know, even women in press conferences, if they get
some wild ask question that sexist or has something to
do with something that doesn't matter about the game they
just played, they're like, is that really what? Like they're
getting called out and it really and I love it
(46:10):
because it is. It is so important, Like I'm not
going to answer that bullshit question you're asking me, or
you're roping me into saying something that's I'm going to
take a ton of backlash for or normalizing that type
of behavior. And I think what we're seeing now is
not only are you, people are being held accountable for it.
It really is is going to help the longevity of
(46:33):
our sport because there's some bad ass women completely changing
the landscape of the game. And who is it on
the backs of women? Women? Honestly women, And I love that.
We're really we're no longer having a moment. We're in
(46:53):
the thick of it right now, right think of it.
It's literally we're in a place we've been dreaming about
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Serious question to wrap everything up, how do we keep
it here? How do we keep people coming? I mean
we go to the Liberty game every week that ship
yeah and listen, court in court seats.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
We do not get them camps. They are not camped.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
I'm like, am I going to have to have.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
A women? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Listen, But it's good, it's good. I love it. How
do we keep like I go to Liberty games now
and I see you all the time when when we
freak out, and I love it because the stadiums are complete.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Like it is packed, there's a waiting list for it
is popping.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
We go back into that Crown room. We got that,
you know, we got that carbone pasta. I'm like, what
this is luxury?
Speaker 2 (47:53):
It is?
Speaker 1 (47:54):
This is these men have been getting this for how
many decades and we're just getting a taste of it.
I'm like, hello, of course, well if we had this
the whole damn time, we got a concert outside. Okay,
we've got luxury dying.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Any given day. We don't know exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
I'm like, this is fun and the talent is absolutely incredible,
which is making the atmosphere so dynamic.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
How do we keep it for us?
Speaker 1 (48:22):
How do we keep them on us?
Speaker 2 (48:24):
We continue to storytell right, We're continuing to tell intentional
stories to people who don't always get that. We continue
to sprinkle our magic. We hold the next generation accountable.
I love my mentees and I'm going to hold them
accountable to all their goals because if China didn't hold
me accountable, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be
a part of the building blocks. So I'm holding the
(48:44):
next generation accountable to storyteller as well putting pressure in
the people in the rooms that we're in. We don't
get calls to the table to be quiet. Ever, if
you're not eating, you're on the menu. So we just
have to continue to sound out and show the importance
of why women's sports should be visible and accessible and
(49:06):
everywhere because they're great. Continue to just make it cool.
We're cool people, and I think that people look to
us and say, like, oh they like it, We're gonna
like it too. So continue to be the influential people
and in showcase like hey, women's sports are dope. And
as long as we continue the intentionality and we pass
it on, the next thing will pass it on. Even
(49:28):
our peers will pass it on mutual inspiration and then
amplify online or in both in real life. Your favorite
athletes continue to do it. I tell all my mentees,
don't wait for your yes.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
If I would have waited for my yes, I would
have still been waiting. So anybody out there who wants
to go into sports broadcasting, as long as you have
a phone, you have everything you need. There's a teleprompter
app if you want to get sharp with your recording skills.
But like also, you have a camera and you have
a social media platform hopefully, so post on it whatever
you think that is missing Phil in the blank space,
(50:05):
fill in the blank space, and don't wait for your guests,
and continue to be present in a fan of the game,
in a student of the game.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
I love that, and I think what people can learn
from you, Ari is the way you amplify other people's
messages matter and you do it in such a selfless, kind,
caring way, because I think you and I know that
(50:36):
even though social media is so wonderful, it has given
us both so much at the click of a button
to be able to push ourselves out into the masses.
Tearing people down also, is not it. I think we
have been so saturated with hate for so long that
I do think like so many women now are taking
(50:58):
so much abuse online and that they're just doing a
way with social media during competition. So as much as
I think people can take a lesson out of your book,
You've dedicated your life to serve other people and amplify
their message in an honorable way, and I'm grateful for that.
You've been around since I was a player and now
(51:21):
that I'm retired, You're always you. I just want you
to know you're special and we are better. Women's sports
is better because of you.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
That makes me really emotional. But as much as a
gift that I am to you, I am forever and
did to the game. I think that every time somebody
feels comfortable with me is a gift to me. And
everybody's like, how do you not get burnt out? I
don't get burnt out what I do, but like, I
stay going because every single person I get to come
(51:55):
across is a gift to me, and I'm thankful. So
before we break.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
Up crying, dude, no, this is this is literally it.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
This is this is.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
It, and I appreciate your vulnerability. I appreciate appreciate you
taking the time to come share your experiences that led
you to this moment. So thanks for being on the show,
Thanks for being on Wide Open, and thanks for everything
you do and choose to do and women's.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Sports having me, I would.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Not And you're always welcome. Come anytime. It's if you
you know you want to just pop on by.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
We're here. I'm grow cheers.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
Thanks everyone, We'll see you next week. Wide Open with
Ashland Harris is an iHeart women's sports production. You can
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Our producers are Carmen Borca Careo,
Emily Maronov, and Lucy Jones. Production assistants from Malia Aguidello.
(53:03):
Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder and I'm
your Host Ashlyn Harris
Hi, everyone, Welcome back to another week of Wide Open
with Ashlyn Harris. Our guest today, which is the one
and only Ari Chambers. Welcome to Wide Open, Honey. It's
so good to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I can't wait to get wide open with you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You are my favorite, honestly. Your energy. I mean no
wonder You're so successful. You're so sweet, kind, warm, and
everything in between. And I always every time I'm around you,
I'm just like so attracted to your energy.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's interesting that energy off.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's it's nothing to be warm, and it's such a
cold world. It's cold weather, cold people, cold instances. Why
not get warm?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I love that about you, which is probably why you've
been so successful in everything that you do. So I'm
just gonna broaden your freaking CVS grocery list hilarious things
you do, honey, because I tell you what you do
it all. There's there is no one that I know
can be in so many places at one time. I'm like,
how do you? But do you sleep?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I can sleep like a baby on a plane. Everybody's
like I sleep like fifteen hours a day, stuff like
I will. I will knock out before boarding even ends.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So for people, the people who are watching and listening
who don't know you, Ari. You are a women's sports
multimedia journal. Yes, so unpack that a little bit for
you know, the viewers and the listeners who may not
know exactly what that means and what you do, What
are you doing, what's going on in your life right now?
(01:46):
Let's just break the ice there.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
My passion is amplification of women period here and so
whatever the vehicle for that is is where I go. So,
whether that's storytelling, whether that's now my job has me
in the analyst seat, which is like a push for me.
But I'm learning and I'm continuing to be a student
of the game no matter which game it is. I
love being a part of the game on the field,
(02:09):
in the studio. And I marry myself to that passion
instead of a job title or instead of a network
Say that again, I marry myself to my passion. I
marry myself to my passion. It is true because everything
else is so disposable, right, But something that gets you
out of bed in the morning, something that really pulls
up your heartstrings, you can't really get rid of that,
and it makes you be able to fall forward and
(02:34):
fall on your feet when you walk the path that
you're supposed to walk. So that's where I'm at with work.
My official title, I work at ESPN. I'm a commentator
and an analyst and host. But I also love being
out in the community. I love bridging the gap between
youth sports and pro sports. I love, you know, working
(02:54):
with different leagues to help them with their reach of
women and other demographics that have been underserved. I love
giving back to my school. I took the w n
B A to my high school two years ago, a
sponsored by Wilson, and I had a signature ball with them.
And so just being able to go back to my
community and and build up the foundation that built me
up is most important to me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
That's so special and I think we all see that
in your work, and I think that's such a gift.
You are such a gift to women's sports. And before
we dive in to that drive and that passion, and
I consider it like you're disruptor, girl. That's why we are.
We do what we got we got because we're not
(03:35):
here following in line, following the order like we are.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Disruptors will never be not one to fall in line exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
But before we dive in, because I want to know
your like your origin story. I want to know why
you tick this way. I want to know why you
chose this path. And there's so much about your childhood
that has shaped you into this person who continues to elevate, amplify,
(04:06):
disrupt women's sports. But before we do that on this show,
before we do that, where's my wine?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Honey? Up, she's right here.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Before we do that on this show, is that she
likes to just you know, get the party started.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Turn because if she knows me, she knows that comes straight,
you know. So we've got I come strap.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well that's a heavy pore. I would ask you if
you want some, but I know you're in like hardcore training.
So you're adering for the boat.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And you run a five k and people think you
can run.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's like, girl, I'm not running unless someone's chasing me.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So that's right. I'm just trying to get a participation,
and nowadays I'm trying to get a participation.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
We don't do participation trophies around here. We'll cheers, my love,
thank you, Okay, welcome to Wide Open.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's funny because when you were before our toast you said,
why did you choose it? I don't think I chose this.
I was. It's that nature verse nurture thing, and I
think that I was nurtured to love everything about myself
and the strong woman who raised me, and so I
always had an affinity of women, in appreciation of women,
(05:24):
and I never was placed under a circumstance where we
were without or we didn't deserve to be at the
top position. I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and
so if you know anything about right you're nine one night.
First of all basketball, yes, but soccer too, like I
was able to witness the greatest of the great between
NC State Duke and uncle, you know what it is.
(05:49):
And then my cheer gym was on Western Boulevard, which
is there's a huge soccer field, and so just being
able to grow up next to the game, whether that
be cheerleading in the highest level. Because Kathy Bucky owned
my cheer gym, and she is a historic figure in cheerleading.
She invented the wolf wall. They mentioned him even though
the level four pyramid and had level six, but that's
(06:10):
his store for so we did that. And then I
took field trips to NC State women's basketball games, and
so I saw coach k Yao and I saw the
legacy that she was leaving. She was building actually at
that time, and the basketball team was so nice to me,
and I remember them signing. Back then you could get
physical trading cards when you walk through the door and
(06:33):
just give them to the two athletes they signed it,
and I was able to be on the player tunnel,
and so I did a couple of those and it
was it was a lasting impression on me, how nice
they were to me, and it had nothing to do
with the sport of basketball. I fell in love with
the athletes right. So fast forward, my best friend, one
of my best friends was a professional jumper. She ran
(06:54):
track at U and C but she ended up jumping professional.
I can never finish that. I went to intated around
It's always a.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
But.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And then my other best friend played professional basketball, but
she played undergrad at WEAK and I was just seeing
how they were coming up in a place where their
stories weren't being told. Then I get to my professional
career and we're going to get to that. But I
was a professional cheerleader and did not see the same
coverage for the Liberty as I did the Knicks, and
I just thought that was completely inappropriate. So as I'm
(07:29):
looking back on my life into a little Ari who
grew up around nothing but women's greatness. I grew up
in a very comfortable upbringing, so it wasn't like I
was without so I always knew within me that I
had enough to be at the highest position. Because I
only saw women in super high positions.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It just shows you representation matter. It's so important for
you as a child. Me as a child, all of
us young women who look very different, were able to
see ourselves in these women so we can achieve the
same greatness. And I really admire that because I grew
(08:09):
up in a really small town satellite Beach, Florida, and
I didn't see people like me. I didn't get to
see women on TV. I didn't have college campuses like
close where I could go see women's sports. So it
is so important that you had that at an age.
(08:29):
And now I fast forward to these young girls growing
up now and women's sports is really heating up and
will definitely get to that, but they get to turn that.
They get to turn the TV on and see people
like yourself, people like me.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Access is the key factor. And it's funny because I am,
to my core a cheerleaders, so I love to cheer
other people on. But the representation factor, I like to
decenter myself because I think that athlete storytelling is about
the athlete, but I will assume the responsibility the role
that I am being a representation for somebody out there
(09:11):
that needs it. And so it's a it's a beautiful
dichotomy when you when you look at both sides of it,
being able to remove yourself because it's not about me, right,
it's about it's about you all stories. It's about the
people who are really grinding it out there on every
level who are unheard. But there's also a different part
of it where it's like it's my responsibility to show
(09:32):
up and be a little bit front facing, even a
lot of bit front facing, to show, hey, if you
love sports, you can find other avenues to stay in
it through a professional lens and still have that reward.
And the reward to me looks like seeing the smiles
of people who haven't had their story being told, or
(09:53):
seeing the audience say I didn't know that about them,
or having a player really stripped down to their most
vulnerable self and like even get a mo she know
when they're talking to me. That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And I think that that's so special because we're just
now twenty twenty five. You know, twenty twenty four was
a huge breakthrough for us in women's sports, but like
we're really just seeing it take off, and it's taken
this long.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I just when I walk into games and I see
Val Ackerman there, I don't understand how everybody doesn't fangirl off.
Lachina Robinson has been somebody who if I didn't have
a Lachina on my side, I don't know where I
would be. She is the one who is like, women's
basketball needs you, women's basketball needs us, and she has.
(10:39):
I guarantee you ninety percent of the young talent that
you see on TV right now are children of Lachina.
Yes right, we all come from La China. And even
when I first started my platform, I'm thankful for you
who came in didn't know, like we didn't know each
other like we were. We didn't know each other, but
you believed in what I was doing enough that you
(11:00):
open up space for me to tell your story or
for me to showcase a part of your story, and
I'm thankful for athletes like that who you know, might
not be as familiar but are willing to be open
and be accepting of new faces in this and so
that we can be the building blocks for the next generation.
I'm thankful for every iteration with the like the basketball
(11:25):
players of the WBL from like nineteen seventy two, the
title nine like pioneers. There obviously Women's Sports Foundation, Billy
jing King, but everybody around that who's been pushing the
game forward. We owe it to. Billy came up to
me and said, here's the baton, take it and run.
And when Billy jin King tells you to take a
baton and run, you run. She tells me to swing
(11:45):
the record. I don't know about it, but she told
me to take a baton and run. And I have
the responsibility. We have the responsibility to make the ones
who came before us proud. We have the responsibility to
look at the landscape of women's sports and know that
now we have the platform and the power to continue
to push it forward because we're not where we need
to be. There's a really big facade Ashland, and I
(12:06):
don't know if you've seen the discussion around women's sports
about like we've made it. No we haven't.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
No, we have.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Like even even on the basketball side, one of the
most popular women's sports arguably commercially, I go outside of
the top programs of the Power five, like the top
of the Power five. When you leave that, it can
still be in the Power five. I'm looking, like, where's
the audience we have to fill these seats? And this
is Power five basketball, Like just imagine all the other
(12:33):
women's sports introduced that are fighting for equality or fighting
for equity, or fighting for coverage, fighting for visibility, fighting
for just any type of intention behind them. We have
so much to do.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So yeah, we have, and that's yes we do, I think,
but we don't stop because we're so used to fighting
because we're so used to struggle. We've gotten so comfortable
and struggle that we don't celebrate the small when but
we do have to celebrate that perspective.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I mean, we got year over year, like a lot
of sports are in the millions. We love that here
and then we see that like even at major major networks,
they're starting to pay attention. There's starting to be show
development around so many women's sports leagues. And I'm not
denying that, like the social media impact, the network impact,
just players understanding their own brands now and being able
(13:25):
to be bold enough to put themselves out of there.
I remember when we were we were worried about outing
SUPERB you know what I mean, we were like v
vocal at ESPN. We had to talk about like should
it be released? And I'm like the protectiveness that we've
had over women athletes. Now everybody can exhale because every
can be themselves and that's a beautiful thing. So yeah,
(13:46):
growth and vulnerability and openness is.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And with that, I'll say this. We always on this
show start with a very very important question. What is
the moment, Like there has to be this one moment
that split you wide open that changed everything for you.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
This is layered. I have I have two so steep too. Yeah. Three,
So my moment of purpose that must like just completely
split me wide open and really changed the trajectory I
would argue of my entire career. And why I do
it is Liliana. She was this little girl who went
viral for standing in front of the Maya War poster
(14:31):
for Jordan Brand with her arms out stretched, and she
got invited to the twenty eighteen WNBA All Star Game
in Minnesota, and I met her and she put my
media pass around her neck. And then the next day
I saw her dad at the mall and he said,
all Lilliana can say is daddy, she has hair just
like mine. Oh, and I still can't tell that story
without getting choked up. It's literally been seven years now.
(14:53):
So that reaffirmed my purpose of representation. As far as
purpose of storytelling, twenty twenty was hard for everybody. And
there was this one moment with the Jacob Blake shooting
and I had to do it an Alison Felix's interview
and she was a mom of a baby at the time,
(15:16):
and I just just kept thinking about her child and
how she had raised a black child in this world,
and I just couldn't make it through the interview, and
she was so graceful with it. I'm like, you're the
one who's having to raise it, but I broke down,
and it just it showed that these stories these athletes
are are beyond just athletes. They they have real life things.
(15:40):
And Allison showed up during that time to do the
interview knowing that she is a mother to a black
child in this world and so that that's wide open,
wide open. And another situation from that year was Tierra
Ruff and Pratt. She played for the sparks of the time.
(16:00):
She was talking to me about police brutality and her
cousin got murdered at the hands of the police on
her draft night, and I think that was one of
the first times she's ever shared that story, and so
we were able to show the importance and how it's
not just some far fetched narrative that's happening. I'm just
thankful for those moments because it just showed that the
storytelling is important, and it was almost cathartic to everybody involved,
(16:23):
who were able to just say, this is what happened
to me, this is why this moment in culture matters
to me, and this is how I'm having to show
up in a world that doesn't always appreciate me.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's powerful and that's heavy. And I think in my
truth of knowing you now for the short amount of
time I do, I really find that you have a
special gift to see people and make them feel safe.
(16:58):
You know, when I think back to your childhood and
you're a cheerleader, what part of because it's such a
technical sport, right, and it's a team sport, but also
you're very alone in a lot of ways, and so
much of the energy is synced with the people around you.
(17:21):
How has that really affected who you are now in
this profession?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So cheerleading, I only did competitive cheerleading until later in life.
Then I started cheering four people. But cheerleading teaches you teamwork, discipline,
goal orientation. So if you're a stunting there are three
people under one person, right, And we had this one
rule at my cheer gym. The flyer does not hit
(17:48):
the ground. And if even her pinky hit the ground,
we would be outside on Western Boulevard, running up and
down the street, bear crawling on the mat. It's crazy,
but that just showed me that in order for something
that we all have a goal to keep up top
to hit the ground, all three of us would have
had to not do our jobs. And so it just
(18:09):
makes you hold it like yourself accountable for keeping something up.
And the flyer up top is not just coasting there.
They have to hold their weight. And so it taught
me as a leader, if you're the top girl, you
have to hold your weight. Still, you have to make
it easier for the people who are holding you up.
And so that was a good lesson for me in
(18:31):
how to keep something together, keep a team together, and
if we drop, that's a disappointment to the whole team. Again,
all people would have to do their job wrong in
order for that stunt to fall. And I just I
don't believe in that. It's funny because I was so
early coming here, and I was telling our girl that
(18:53):
I think lateness is a character flaw, and that's from cheerleading.
If we were second late, we'd be up and down
the street. Yeah, resolutely, And sports teaches you that and
cheerleading you're not going to get a hundred. You're not
gonna get a score of one hundred. I'm not gonna
go down how they are scored. But even if you
hit zero, even if everything is technically sound, you're not
(19:14):
going to get that one hundred. And so it's just
do the best you can in the most prestine way,
in the most precise way, and just aim for your best.
And so it taught me to aim for the best
that you can do the best execution. It taught me
that you can't do the small things wrong because it
will result in a fall or in just a tumble bust.
(19:37):
It taught me teamwork. It taught me, Hey, if you
see your teammates having a bad day again, it goes
back to the stunt groups. Something's gonna go haywire. If
they're like not focused in the tumbling section, you could
collide and literally die. And it's a very dangerous sport.
So the detail, orientation and just the discipline really which
all is together you to a t.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So people don't know Ari that you were a professional
cheerleader for the NIXT and that opened the door to
the liberty. Tell me about that. Tell me what that
was like when you had a front row seat to
watching the inequities and the gap between watching men play
(20:24):
basketball and cheering for them and they're you know, probably
where were you Madison Square Garden. And now you get
the opportunity to see the w n b A, which
is the longest standing professional like Women's league. Am I correct?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
It is great?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It is Come on me, So I just what was
that like for you?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Okay, So everybody tries to over strategize this. I literally
went to a game with my friend, a Connecticut versus
New York game at MSG in twenty fourteen, I saw
that they had cheerleaders. I was like, I really want
to be on torch patrol. I reached out to the
entertainment director. She made me do a full season of
The Knicks first. Ye who knows why, but anyway, because
that was not what I wanted to do, but I
(21:13):
did it so I can do Liberty because I wanted
to see my friends who played in the league all
the time, like I wanted to cheer for them. Like
it was that simple. But then Madison Square Garden is
the world's most famous arena. Yes, and you have the
top one hundred and forty four athletes going in and
out of the world's most famous arena, and there are
five media members you can count on hand. It was
(21:33):
like Doug Feinberg, Erica, Ala Vocal, and Lauren from Beyond
the W and then like one or two others, right,
Howard mcdoll. Yeah, And I was like, is thatybody good?
Like I remember there was an Olympic showcase there and
I just did not understand why people didn't want to
talk about my friends. That's it, Like that's where it
(21:54):
was right there. It wasn't like a oh my God,
I must push this, this women's sports forward. I was like,
why is nobody caring about my friends? And so what
I would do When I made the decision, I was like, Okay,
I can talk about them. I have a phone, I
can post online about it. And so I would meet
them at their hotel room before the game or after
and I would record. I don't know if I should
be telling people for advice, but like, I mean, if
(22:16):
you have a relationship to do it, yeah, But I
would put my phone up in a conference room and
record and they would open up. Like Lasa Clarendon was
one of the first ones that really shared their story
with me and posting them. They picked up traction and
I did it for more and more people, and I
made a lot more friends. And there was a lot
(22:36):
of distrust between like the league in pr and things
like that going in because they're like, who is this
girl just infiltrating and then she's over here doing T
shirt tosses during the time I imagine consuming and I'm
like throwing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
A shirt girls seventeen Bear.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Hated when I threw the shirt over the anyway, I
love it anyway, But they started taking me more and
more seriously because I continue to do it, and there's
a lot of proving yourself and I would never want
somebody to go through the links that I had to
go through to prove myself and having to Like I
started off on camera, then I had to write because
people needed to know that I knew about the game.
(23:15):
And then I like I would do a lot of
film setting I sold like instruments to get to where
I needed to go, like I couldn't afford anything, Like
I would take the pregame meals home just to eat,
like just so I can fund my way to different
things because I was independent. And then Howard Megdal gave
(23:36):
me an opportunity. It was called the Summon at the
time some of hoops and now it's the next and
then La China Robinson guided me. But outside of like
a few of them, nobody helped. And then I crowdsourced
my way to the final four. Finally in what twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, and Corey Close, UCLA women's basketball head coach,
actually gave me quite a bit of money. And one
(23:59):
of my favorite Twitter family, pretty Rikibu, gave me a
nice chunk of change to go and that was my
first time knowing that people are believing in my mission.
But again, this was four years of work before I
even got to be able to crowdsource to get there. Wow,
And so people don't see that part. But I didn't choose.
I didn't strategically choose. I was like, nobody's talking about
my people, why not? And then the way I started
(24:21):
talking about other women's sports and having a call in
with that is I was complaining to somebody, my girl,
she plays softball, about WNBA salary and she literally laughed
at me and she said, we make five thousand a
year and I said, oh my god, we have so
much more to go. And then I was like, what's
soccer talking about? Y'all over here on the front lines
of everything, what's soccer talking about? And I have candidly
(24:42):
never really been big on soccer outside of like idolizing
the ones that like played in North Carolina. Obviously you
and Cee whatever Go Health was a powerhouse.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Still I'm glad we're still friends anyway, it still is.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
But like, outside of that admiration and the courage Admira,
I never really got into soccer like that. But the
soccer community opened up their arms to me and then
I found different levels of advocacy there and so I
was like, oh, this is this is so much work
to do, but let's let's stay fueled doing it.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I love that this is wide open and I'm your host,
Ashlyn Harris. We'll be right back. So you were the
founder of Highlighter and that became a big deal. It
(25:38):
really did. Like it was everywhere your content was, everywhere
social media was taking off. You were taking off. You
started to go viral based on a tweet you put out,
and what was that tweet?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So the tweet had actually nothing to do with Highlighter.
It was before that. The WNBA is so important because
no over strategy. I just said exactly what I was thinking.
And then it just became a repeated occurrence because the
w WA never stopped being important, and then I needed
to widen it. And so when I saw something dope
happened in another sport, I was like energy with four
(26:12):
wise and it just it just stuck, right, So these
things just stuck with Highlighter. I created it to be
a community to uplift and empower girls and women in sport,
no matter the age level, ability your sport, and I
wanted it to make it so that the ash On
Harrises of the world could be showcased, but also your
next door neighbor who does dope stuff. I wanted to
make it so that your favorite athlete is great, but
(26:35):
your upcoming rapper is on it too. I wanted it
to be a space for all girls and all women
and all non binary people to feel great, which is
you know, question why I named it highlighter, but neither
here nor there. But I wanted to be a space
where people felt seen the Hattan before and very intentional
on not just the top names. Like the top names
(26:57):
y'all are great, love y'all so much, I got a look,
but like also the ones who get overlooked. So as
we're talking about, you know, a high D one power five,
I'm also talking about my girl over here who goes
to HBCU that's averaging a quadruple double. So there are
things like that that I wanted to sprinkle in and
and it I had a great run there.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I love that for you, though, but it really it
was it created the foundation for you to take off
and to really have this level of I would say,
like fame and your life has changed quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Changed so significantly. I never could have imagined. No, I
never could have imagine. But what I love that you
said about that is it kickstarted it. But like Highlighter,
was never about me. It was about the community, right,
So I am okay with leaving it in the hands.
I hired my best friend candidly, because guys do it,
why not, like it's the girls club. Who I hired
my best friend, And I hired another girl, Jasmine, who
(27:56):
she had been working in the women's sports space with
me when I used to go down and cover the mystics,
and I saw how hard she worked on the ground too.
So between Krishan, Jason and me, it was a three
person team for a long time. Well first it was
me for two and a half years, and then I
got to hire two and I hired the people I
knew and I loved, and so I was able to
leave it with them. I love that, and it just
became the basis for other people to take it and
(28:18):
interpret it how they wanted to. But again, I like
whatever said at the beginning, I marry myself to my passion.
I'm not married to a singular platform or place. I'm
married to the cause. I love that, and I'm going
to continue to build. And everybody says, oh, do you
feel like you made it? No, I'm nowhere near where
I made it. I'll appreciate the small wins, but there's
(28:40):
no making it. When it comes to this, it won't
be in my lifetime. But if I can just continue
to add every single day until the end of my time,
that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I love that. So you are the founder of Highlighter,
you get to pick the stories you get. You are
the boss, and now you're working with ESPN. Like that's
a big difference. You're not the boss anymore. You're not
You're not picking.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
You're not, No, you.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Are You're not picking the stories, You're not picking the
Like what is that transition?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Like?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Because you're the ownership to choose what you what stories
you want that are meaningful, that you think are important.
Now you're with you know, a big gun like ESPN.
How has that shifted? Like? Is that hard? Is that
you know, pushing you outside of your comfort zone now
(29:33):
because you have so many other things you have to
do that you probably don't necessarily always get a choice
in what what does it?
Speaker 2 (29:41):
How is that I have never lived in a comfort zone.
I don't even know what company comfort fact. No, it
was the most jarring adjustment ever. But I am thankful
that ESPN has a respect for me to listen to
my opinion when I do have them. I have great producers,
great assignment editors to know my intention. It was very
(30:02):
clear when I signed I only wanted to do women's sports.
I made it very clear.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
You always make that clear.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Like football, I'm like, no, absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
They're okay over there, trust me.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
So it's it's it's teaching me to slow down and
when I do get opportunities, make the biggest punch out
of them. I had unlimited opportunity at my former employer,
but the scale that you can deliver a message just
is just exponentially more when it comes to ESPN. It's
a worldwide leader of sports, so like it just becomes
(30:35):
so much grander. And the opportunities that I've gotten, Like
my first sideline rep for ESPN was or for basketball
at ESPN was playoffs Game one at Barclays, Like that
was my first opportunity. So there's no comfort zone here.
They're just gonna be like here, And it teaches me, like, hey,
you got to be prepared. You got to stay prepared.
(30:55):
This is not an innovative space in the way that
you have created for yourself. Now you have to challenge
yourself to like study in ways that you haven't before.
Not saying I wasn't studying before. I was absolutely studying,
but like in something that is not supernatural to me.
I'm a special features girl. I love sit down storytelling,
and they're like, okay, great analyst in studio. My first
(31:19):
w NBA accountdown was ABC right after or right before
Indiana Seattle. We don't want to we don't want to ESPN.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
News million years, but like, but it teaches you a
lot about what you're willing to do to be successful.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Everybody is so hard on us as front facing people.
The world doesn't realize that y'all are watching us practice.
We don't get to practice in a comfortable small space.
We practice on the biggest stages, and we fail on
the biggest stages. We succeed on the biggest stages too,
But people see when I don't do well and they'll
(31:59):
tell you, no, tweet at you. Yeah, they'll tell you
every single time. And I've had to learn. Andre Carter
actually says this all the time. It's never as good
as you think it is, and it's never as bad
as you think it is. I think Dorisbourger told her that,
and then she what she gave me the advice of
is call your friends up and asked did I sound
like myself? And that's where you love that, like did
(32:20):
I sound like me? Did I make sense? Did I?
And that's what I that's the only opinion that I
take a new account. And I like to give myself grades,
and I literally have never given myself over a B.
So that's you know, internal work.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But I are all so critical on our.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
SR but ESPN has pushed me completely out of my
comfort zone. And I'm so thankful for the growth that
I've been able to have, and I hope that I
will continue to grow and be better.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
What You're great, You're fantastic. You don't get to where
you are right now without being incredibly good at what
you do.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You dedicate your life to telling other people's stories.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
What about you? What about you like?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
What what about your like?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (33:09):
How do you take care of yourself?
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I love doing like circ fitness, I love like the
anti gravity yoga and let us going upside down. I
am inherently upside down. It used to be playing with
my dog, but he just passed, and it's really really
hard for me because he's been there since college. He
was fifteen, wow, and so I mean he was there
from like the dorm days, and it was hard for
a lot of people from college, like you. Tiger had
(33:32):
an impact. But I'm rediscovering what it looks like to
pour into me now because I, first of all, I
have never been great with it, but I'm still figuring
it out. I am now taking up running because I'm
clearly a masochist and I clearly want to be in pain.
But distance running is something that I picked up in
(33:52):
the pandemic and kind of stopped and let go of
myself because of different life situations. But now picking back
up in twenty twenty five and end of you know
the month, I'll be at what four or five k's
which is ridiculous, wow, but I love it. I guess
two of them were under thirty degree weather.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
So well, are you finding time to date? Are you
finding time to we.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Keep our personal person?
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Do we my personal personal? I love it?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
But are you finding time to really like live life
and not through the lens of interviewing other people, but yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I don't think so. And well, I'll find it. I'll
find it, and I am not. I am doing the
best I can with the perspective that I have on life.
And I moved into my dream apartment now show and
that's a that's a culmination of my hard work. My
(34:52):
agent told me I needed to spend my money, and
I don't necessarily spend all flashy things, and so I
spent it on my home. And I have a good
home and and I have people that care a lot
about me. My goal for twenty twenty four sounds so minute.
No it doesn't. I'm not going to diminish it. But
I said, I want to pour into my friends more so,
I was able to go to my friend's weddings, like
Kelsey trainor Monica McNutt. I was able to go to
(35:12):
their weddings. And Monica is the first one. I keep
a great tribe around me. Monica's like, have you rested?
Did you take time off? Are you on vacation while
you aren't? You by water and she literally forced a
vacation on me. All the time. I'm like, you need
frends like that, actually don't work.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I need friends, like.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
And we went to Miami and we stepped out a
little bit. We did like a couple of days in
that basil, but then both of us were like, we're
gonna actually leave early. I texted you, I saw you.
You were there and you were like thirty six hours
but it was it was it. I need to keep
people around like that because they make it. No, like
I need to keep you around and to keep Monica
(35:46):
around because rest is important. It's just important and it
is productive.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Are you gonna burn out?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I've burnt out years ago. I keep getting fueled because
there's so much work to do. But I should be
work driven. I'm trying. I'm trying to be more balanced
driven and like pouring into my friends.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Like I just what the fuck is balance? I don't know, child,
but everyone always talked about balance. I'm like, what is balance?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No? But I was really proud because in December I
was able to spend three days with my best friend
Laki via boy Kid for the first time since high school,
three days straight for the first time since high school.
That's great. I graduated fifteen years ago, so like, what
am I doing? But that happened, and then every year
(36:27):
I have a Christmas party with like my friend Krishan Williams.
She was my best friends or she still is my
best friend since we were five, and so me, her
and Jasmine, we all come together.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
And you need it, you need you need time away
from the game. And I I've had to learn that
the hard way because I wrapped so much of my
identity and who I was into the sport I played,
and it's I am so much more than what I did,
and I'm having to relearn so much of life through
(37:02):
another lens of not suffering and not I have this complex.
I always think someone's working harder than me, so it's
like I never rest. Like joy doesn't come easy for
people like us. It just doesn't, because the second you
stop and enjoy your environment and what you're doing, someone's
(37:23):
already passed you. So we have this mindset of when
we do have these beautiful milestones or successes in our life,
the next day we wake up, we're like, great, we
did that, what's next?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
And it's a really not so great way to live
life because you get to a point where it's past
you and you're like, but did I enjoy it. This
is wide open and I'm your host, Ashlyn Harris. We'll
be right back.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
I have two stories. The first one we were in Atlanta.
I was getting my makeup done and I just got
to spread this huge, like eight page spread about the
WB is so important. It was like a huge feature,
and my makeup or was like, that's great, and then
I was just like, oh, this is great, Like I
thought that I was celebrating it, and he was like,
it's so sad because you get so down but you
never get so high. He's like, I feel bad for you,
(38:27):
and that like stuck with me. And it was like,
you can get so low, but you never get so high.
And I just that sticks with me. But also your
bou thing told me that people like us are so
used to pain when it comes to like athletics and
like just overexertion and just being able to take a
hit and having to keep going through the pain and
(38:48):
through the suffering and through the conditioning, when life shouldn't
be like that. You shouldn't have to push through the
pain all the time. You shouldn't have to take the
pain all the time. And so that that really stuck,
I mean, shout out to love somebody.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
I mean, Sofia is so wide, and.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
She was like, you should not as former athletes or
as humans in general, be so accustomed to pain all
the time and having to perform under pain all the time.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
It's true, and not only has she lived it in
her profession, she's experiencing it through my lens. So I'll
be like, let's go work out at the gym and
then we'll finish the warm up. I said, Okay, that's
the warm up, and she's like, that's a full lass workout.
You She's like, you don't have to suffer anymore. You
(39:35):
don't have to move at this speed. You don't have
to punish yourself, Like, just go for a fifteen minute walk, go,
you know, get your body moving like I'm we are.
So if I don't feel like shit the next day.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
I'm not swe nothing.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I did nothing, it doesn't matter nothing.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
But it's it's a you really have to relearn the
way you move in the world. And so if he
is right, and she says this to me all the time,
it's like all or nothing for me, Like if I'm
not going all in, I'm not wasting my fucking time
doing it.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
It's just that if I get it, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, it's just it is. It's it's a really great
perspective on life. And now I'm really like, Oh, this
is what it feels to be happy. You know. We've
talked about this before. It's not about winning and losing.
It's about winning and learning, Like I am learning so
much right now, and I love that about our growth
(40:33):
and seeing us together and we have so many great conversations.
We had a panel not too long ago together, and
I think it's it's so important, and we have such
an obligation and a duty to not only tell the
stories of women in sports, but tell it correctly and
tell it in a way where we're not making it
(40:55):
about the way women look. We're making it about the
way women perform. And as much as it's about women's sports,
it's about sports like these are the best athletes in
the world that we get to sit in rooms with,
and how we decide to pick them apart in media
with a microphone in our mouth matters.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I love that you brought this up.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Let's talk, let's think because we have them going to
talk about this.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Who I'm gonna really like, hone down on this specific
topic because there I covered gymnastics to gymnastics is one
of my I would I would argue that's my favorite sports.
But yes, there's this this recurring theme of when you're
describing black gymnasts, everybody says powerful athletic things like those
(41:46):
type of words. When it when it when it's not
that they're any more powerful or anymore athletic, it's like
that's the only words that you used to describe them.
There's intentionality missing behind how people describe, or a laziness
behind people how people describe certain athletes. And so when
I get to be in rooms where I can listen
and learn about how athletes want to be presented, whether
(42:08):
that is about their parents, not about their parents, about
their skill set, how they want their skill set to
be discussed, I am so thankful that, like both of us,
we are so open to shifting our perspectives and taking
our bias, whether we know it or not, away from
our coverage and providing a new perspective to the entire
world about how these athletes feel like they're doing, feel
(42:31):
like they want to be represented in the stories that
are possible because if you go in there with a
certain rigid expectation or rigid perspective, you're not going to
get the richest story. And I think that we've been
able to get rich stories over the years, and rich
just spaces in this because we're open to hearing what
(42:54):
the athletes actually want and we're open to changing our
narratives that we're trying to push to.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I completely agree because I hear the way people are,
you know, talking about a lot of women in the
w n b A, and it's it's always so superficial.
It's always picking apart what they wore in the tunnel
or what they did outside of the game and how
(43:24):
their hair looked toward this And I'm like, Kaitlin Clark
is literally hitting threes from a fucking logo and you're
worried about her mini skirt she walked in, Like, but
honestly are we are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
There's space for both. But I also think that there's harmful,
like harm when it comes to you centering sexualized sexualized
athletes in well, sexualizing athletes period period, but like and
also centralizing trivial things when it relates to their game.
I think that there is space for a fashion situation
(43:57):
because like, obviously tunnel.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Sport is it's the center of culture, man, absolutely, but
we need to.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Just more intentionality between media members and things as little
as don't call it girls basketball if they're over eighteen,
like just it's women.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
It's women, it's women. Like even some of the shit,
Like I heard Shack say something the other I was like, Bro,
you've been around too long to be saying shit like that,
Like you've been around.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
You can't write it off as it's the old head.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
No, y'all have to be better. Stop stop. And I
know they advocate for women's sports, but they still.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
It's it's And it's confusing because you want to believe
that the activism is rooted in like altruism, and I
think it is. I just think that it's so like, oh,
this is how old heads talked and that was the
culture of back in the time. But there has to
be a growth element to how you speak about women now,
Like there just has to be. This is not the
nineties anymore. I mean just even listen to the music
(44:54):
back in the nineties. It was very uh, it was rapey.
It was very problem and we were jamming to we
didn't see anything wrong with it. But as you grow
as you know what's out there, what is right and
what's wrong. You have to you have to grow with
the times. And I think that a lot of these
old talking heads have to grow with the times. They
need to realize this is inappropriate, This is actually a problem,
(45:15):
This is actually inappropriate, And the power that you hold
you have to recognize. And so you're not shaving the
next generation to set them up to disrespect women and
women in sports.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I love that, and it it starts also with us.
It starts because we're in those rooms. And I think
for so long, when I've heard coaches say things and
things in the locker room, and when I'm in a
press conference and someone asked me some wild asked question
that is so ridiculous and has nothing to do with
the game or the performance, we just for so long
(45:50):
sat back and we're like, oh, we got to take that.
That's a part of it. And I love that now.
You know, even women in press conferences, if they get
some wild ask question that sexist or has something to
do with something that doesn't matter about the game they
just played, they're like, is that really what? Like they're
getting called out and it really and I love it
(46:10):
because it is. It is so important, Like I'm not
going to answer that bullshit question you're asking me, or
you're roping me into saying something that's I'm going to
take a ton of backlash for or normalizing that type
of behavior. And I think what we're seeing now is
not only are you, people are being held accountable for it.
It really is is going to help the longevity of
(46:33):
our sport because there's some bad ass women completely changing
the landscape of the game. And who is it on
the backs of women? Women? Honestly women, And I love that.
We're really we're no longer having a moment. We're in
(46:53):
the thick of it right now, right think of it.
It's literally we're in a place we've been dreaming about
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Serious question to wrap everything up, how do we keep
it here? How do we keep people coming? I mean
we go to the Liberty game every week that ship
yeah and listen, court in court seats.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
We do not get them camps. They are not camped.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
I'm like, am I going to have to have.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
A women? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Listen, But it's good, it's good. I love it. How
do we keep like I go to Liberty games now
and I see you all the time when when we
freak out, and I love it because the stadiums are complete.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Like it is packed, there's a waiting list for it
is popping.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
We go back into that Crown room. We got that,
you know, we got that carbone pasta. I'm like, what
this is luxury?
Speaker 2 (47:53):
It is?
Speaker 1 (47:54):
This is these men have been getting this for how
many decades and we're just getting a taste of it.
I'm like, hello, of course, well if we had this
the whole damn time, we got a concert outside. Okay,
we've got luxury dying.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Any given day. We don't know exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
I'm like, this is fun and the talent is absolutely incredible,
which is making the atmosphere so dynamic.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
How do we keep it for us?
Speaker 1 (48:22):
How do we keep them on us?
Speaker 2 (48:24):
We continue to storytell right, We're continuing to tell intentional
stories to people who don't always get that. We continue
to sprinkle our magic. We hold the next generation accountable.
I love my mentees and I'm going to hold them
accountable to all their goals because if China didn't hold
me accountable, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be
a part of the building blocks. So I'm holding the
(48:44):
next generation accountable to storyteller as well putting pressure in
the people in the rooms that we're in. We don't
get calls to the table to be quiet. Ever, if
you're not eating, you're on the menu. So we just
have to continue to sound out and show the importance
of why women's sports should be visible and accessible and
(49:06):
everywhere because they're great. Continue to just make it cool.
We're cool people, and I think that people look to
us and say, like, oh they like it, We're gonna
like it too. So continue to be the influential people
and in showcase like hey, women's sports are dope. And
as long as we continue the intentionality and we pass
it on, the next thing will pass it on. Even
(49:28):
our peers will pass it on mutual inspiration and then
amplify online or in both in real life. Your favorite
athletes continue to do it. I tell all my mentees,
don't wait for your yes.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
If I would have waited for my yes, I would
have still been waiting. So anybody out there who wants
to go into sports broadcasting, as long as you have
a phone, you have everything you need. There's a teleprompter
app if you want to get sharp with your recording skills.
But like also, you have a camera and you have
a social media platform hopefully, so post on it whatever
you think that is missing Phil in the blank space,
(50:05):
fill in the blank space, and don't wait for your guests,
and continue to be present in a fan of the game,
in a student of the game.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
I love that, and I think what people can learn
from you, Ari is the way you amplify other people's
messages matter and you do it in such a selfless, kind,
caring way, because I think you and I know that
(50:36):
even though social media is so wonderful, it has given
us both so much at the click of a button
to be able to push ourselves out into the masses.
Tearing people down also, is not it. I think we
have been so saturated with hate for so long that
I do think like so many women now are taking
(50:58):
so much abuse online and that they're just doing a
way with social media during competition. So as much as
I think people can take a lesson out of your book,
You've dedicated your life to serve other people and amplify
their message in an honorable way, and I'm grateful for that.
You've been around since I was a player and now
(51:21):
that I'm retired, You're always you. I just want you
to know you're special and we are better. Women's sports
is better because of you.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
That makes me really emotional. But as much as a
gift that I am to you, I am forever and
did to the game. I think that every time somebody
feels comfortable with me is a gift to me. And
everybody's like, how do you not get burnt out? I
don't get burnt out what I do, but like, I
stay going because every single person I get to come
(51:55):
across is a gift to me, and I'm thankful. So
before we break.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
Up crying, dude, no, this is this is literally it.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
This is this is.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
It, and I appreciate your vulnerability. I appreciate appreciate you
taking the time to come share your experiences that led
you to this moment. So thanks for being on the show,
Thanks for being on Wide Open, and thanks for everything
you do and choose to do and women's.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Sports having me, I would.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Not And you're always welcome. Come anytime. It's if you
you know you want to just pop on by.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
We're here. I'm grow cheers.
Speaker 1 (52:39):
Thanks everyone, We'll see you next week. Wide Open with
Ashland Harris is an iHeart women's sports production. You can
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Our producers are Carmen Borca Careo,
Emily Maronov, and Lucy Jones. Production assistants from Malia Aguidello.
(53:03):
Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder and I'm
your Host Ashlyn Harris
Host
Ashlyn Harris
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