Good Game with Sarah Spain

It’s time to announce the winners of the 2025 Slice-ees, the second annual Good Game with Sarah Spain awards for excellence, eminence, and embarrassment in women’s sports! Then, friends of the show return to put a button on our new year’s ponderings and talk about changing our minds in 2026. Plus, shuffling up and down the leaderboard and an Italian athlete we’re finding it im-pasta-ble not to love.

A new year demands a look back and a look ahead, so we asked some friends of the show to share a memory from 2025 that’s sure to stick and to tell us their intentions - not resolutions, intentions! - for 2026. Plus, circling back on the biggest news from the holiday break, a Winter Olympic charcuterie board, and Unrivaled tips off without a co-founder. 

• The Unrivaled schedule can be found...

To close out our "Best of 2025" series, we're revisiting Sarah's conversation with legendary coach and player Dawn Staley. Back in September, she joined Sarah for a candid conversation about leading in life, beyond just wins and losses. Staley, whose Hall of Fame career has shaped generations of athletes, discusses the pressure of coaching in the new NIL and House v. NCAA era, her advocacy for equity in women’s athletics, and...

Happy 2026, slices! We're continuing our week of Best Ofs with Paige Jones, a member of the U.S. National Ski Jumping Team, who joined Sarah in August to share a concerning experience she had during inspections before the season began. Jones explained why a scandal involving altered ski jumping suits has resulted in more intense examinations, detailed just what the heck a crotch machine is, and asked her sport’s governin...

Happy New Year's Eve, Slices! We're continuing our week of Best Ofs with U.S. women’s national team legends Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach who sat down with Sarah for a live interview as part of the Women’s Sports Foundation's Athlete Leadership Connection back in October. They discuss how Abby and Julie handled the transition from pro athlete to post-soccer life, why women's sports are inherently political, learning how ...

Three-time Olympian and two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe joined Sarah earlier this year to talk birthday celebrations, being on the good side of 40, finding joy post-retirement, what’s on her decade to-do list, co-hosting a podcast with her fiancée Sue Bird, what is lost when athletes don’t use their voices, and being a target for far-right foolishness. 

• Listen to A Touch More ...

This week, we're revisiting some of our favorite interviews of 2025, including this conversation with Erin Drake of the WNBA Players Association, and Meghann Burke and Tori Huster of the NWSL Players Association. The trio joined Sarah in late October to discuss what collective bargaining negotiations look like behind the scenes, what the two PAs have learned from each other, and how systems need to change in order for investment in...

We're revisiting some of our favorite interviews of 2025, starting with a conversation with Allyson Felix. The retired track star and mother-of-two spoke with Sarah over the summer about her legendary career and the joys and challenges of juggling parenthood and multiple business endeavors. They discussed her new management company Always Alpha, her new documentary "She Runs The World," and her longtime advocacy on behalf of w...

Little Citrus is back for another holiday hot take speed round – Christmas edition!! Sarah and Alex share their opinions on artificial trees, gift cards as gifts, Hallmark movies, Die Hard and more. Then some hot takes from a few Slices and a couple of your favorite NWSL stars. Plus, a No. 3 pummels some No. 1s, when the student becomes the teacher, and protecting the money maker ahead of the big day. 

2025 is (blessedly) almost over, which means it’s time for the 2025 Slice-ees (aka the Good Game with Sarah Spain End-of-Year Awards). Sarah and Alex present their nominees in categories including the “The Megan Rapinoe I F***ing Yeeted My Achilles in the Final Game Award" for the most unbelievable injury and the “Misha Jones Left You Brokenhearted Thanks Obama Award" for the athlete or coach whose departure to an...

Former head of Turner Broadcasting, now co-CEO and Founder of Horizon Sports & Experiences David Levy joins Sarah to discuss this weekend’s Shark Beauty Women's Champions Classic, what he learned about buying and selling sports in his 33 years at Turner, his advice for decision-makers when it comes to the changing media landscape, and why the women’s sports bubble isn't about to burst any time soon. Plus,&...

Women’s volleyball reporter and host of the Side Out Society podcast Tiffany Oshinsky joins Sarah to preview this weekend’s NCAA volleyball Final Four in Kansas City, discuss the biggest upsets and surprises from the tournament, and take a pop quiz on city nicknames. Plus, tripling up the triple doubles, winning by a Mississippi, and we’ll take one year for one million, Alex. 

Ahead of the Milan-Cortina Paralympics, multi-sport phenom Oksana Masters sat down with producer Alex to discuss how she’s persevered through dozens of injuries and surgeries to become the most decorated Winter Paralympian in U.S. history, her caffeine-fueled goals for life after competition, and the advice she'd give up-and-coming competitors (but never follow herself). Plus, labor divisions expand, a trophy-worthy flick and...

Legendary soccer player Michelle Akers joins Sarah to talk about Origin Story: The 85ers, a new podcast documenting the first U.S. Women's National Team, the topless surf outing that resulted in a lasting nickname, and the joy, injuries and heartbreak that came with setting into motion 40 years of U.S. women’s soccer dominance. Plus, the field beats the favorite, a caucus teams up with a union, and a quicker-than-quick q...

Justine Siegel and Assia Grazioli-Venier of the soon-to-launch Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) joined Sarah to discuss the behind-the-scenes process of getting the league up and running, the decision to start with four teams in coastal cities but play the inaugural season in the Midwest, and the emotions they expect to feel when they witness the first pitch of the first women’s pro baseball league in 70 years. Plus, ...

Former WNBA player, coach and sometime reality star Ty Young joins Sarah to discuss all the offseason options now available to players, the reality of being on reality TV, working under Teresa Weatherspoon, and her shock at the WNBA legend getting just one year at the helm in Chicago. Plus, is it possible that winning too much is a bad thing? 

SHOW NOTES: 

• Read Jeff Kassouf&rs...

Beth Mowins, longtime play-by-play announcer and OG women’s hoops broadcaster, joins Sarah to discuss the most memorable moments from her legendary career, the changes she’s seen in the women’s college basketball landscape over the years, the biggest winners, losers, surprises and disappointments of this NCAA hoops season so far, and her advice to those looking to follow in her footsteps. Plus, a timely celebratio...

The Winter Olympics are coming at us fast — almost as fast as a tight turn on an icy track. Ahead of the Milan-Cortina Games, producer Alex sat down with two-time skeleton world championship medalist Mystique Ro to discuss how she made the transition from track & field to sliding on ice, why “warming up” looks a little different in her sport, and what it will take to disrupt the monopoly one man has on the ske...

Sport-inspired artists Shannon Favia and Mallory Tolcher join Sarah to discuss their paths to becoming professional artists, combining their passions for sport and art, collaborating with teams and athletes, and the unique way they’ve each used basketball nets in their work. Plus, the return of the best rivalry, climbing for days, and when in drought, distract, distract, distract.

• Follow Mallo...