January 6, 2026 • 45 mins
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.
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Check out the behind-the-scenes video of Alessandra Fumagalli and her spaghetti here
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The latest women’s basketball rankings can be found here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're demanding
the stead Buds do a live stream of the whole
unrivaled season, get a body cam for in game content,
whatever it takes, Truman show a twenty four to seven
You won't. It's Tuesday, January sixth, and on today's show
will be announcing the winners of the twenty twenty five
slices the second annual Good Game with Sarah Spain Awards
(00:22):
for Excellence, Eminence, and Embarrassment in Women's Sports. Also, some
friends of the show returned to put a button on
our New Year's ponderings, discussing a big theme for us
this year, openness and willingness to change, plus shuffling up
and down the leaderboard, sliding to victory, and an Italian
athlete we're finding it impossible not to love. It's all
(00:44):
coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's what
you need to know today. A few college hoop storylines
to tie up from the weekend, including Number twelve Vanderbilt
upsetting Number five l LSU sixty five to sixty one
on Sunday night, handing the Tigers their second straight loss.
(01:05):
With the win the Vanderbilt Commodores remained undefeated with a
fifteen to zero record to start the season. Oh and
by the way, those number twelve and number five rankings
I just mentioned they don't mean jack anymore because there
was a lot of movement following a handful of big
upsets this weekend. While the top four teams Yukon, Texas,
South Carolina, and UCLA all stayed put, pretty much everyone
else moved up or down with their two losses to
(01:28):
open the new year. LSU fell all the way to
number twelve, while Vanderbilt climbed to number seven in the poll.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We'll link to the full top twenty five in the
show notes.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Looking ahead. One big game on the schedule tonight, with
number twenty one USC hosting Oregon Trojans looking to bounce
back after getting thrashed by UCLA eighty to forty six
over the weekend. More hoops News Unrivaled tipped off yesterday
with a perfectly scripted finish to the opening game, co
founder Brianna Stewart hitting the game winner to lead her
miss team over the Hives seventy two to fifty six.
(01:58):
Alisha Gray led five Missed players and double digits She
had twenty one points nine boards in the win to hockey.
There's one PWHL game on the schedule tonight, with the
third ranked New York Sirens traveling to the fourth ranked
Toronto Scepters. Then tomorrow night, Hillary Knight returns to Boston
for the first time this season with her sixth ranks
Seattle Torrent taken on the Boston Fleet at Aganis Arena
(02:20):
to the World of Sliding aka bob sleds, skeleton and luge.
All three sports had World Cup stops over the weekend,
with US athletes showing up in a big way first.
The Skeleton World Cup continued over the weekend with the
stop in Winterberg, Germany. Friend of the Show Mistique Roe
finished second to Austrias Janine Flock for her first podium
finish of the season. Meantime, in luge American Summer Bricher
(02:42):
won the singles event over the weekend in Sugooleda, Latvia.
It's the seventh World Cup singles win for Britcher, who
already owns the record for most World Cup wins for
a US luge athlete. We got to take a break
when we come back, honoring everything from fits to chips,
we unveil the winners of the twenty twenty five slices.
(03:07):
Welcome back slices, Alex, get in.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Here, Hello again Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We got a lot of votes for the slices, nearly
two hundred, so shout out to everyone who voted in
the Good Game election. I guess we'll call it very
good to see everyone taking their civic duty seriously.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I just hope that they have the same seriousness for
the midterms later this.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Year, one would hope. Yes. I also loved the writ ins.
Perhaps fewer of those for the midterms. I think we
should stick to people who will get elected, but the
writ ins are so fun to read during this and
just see the stuff that we forgot from the year
in sports, but also to see which ones of our
favorites ended up emerging victorious. So let's get started. First
(03:51):
up with the winner of the Brandy chest Ain Sports
Bras Scene Around the World Award for Best Moment in
Women's Sports. And it was my suggestion you winning the
twenty twenty five NCAA title that received forty seven point
three percent of the vote, and I think Alex I
was actually surprised to go back and figure out how
long it had been since Ay one, because they're always
in the mix, and I think that's part of the
(04:11):
reason they got a little bit of the bump.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
This year, Yeah for sure. And I don't think page
Becker is heard in the whole storyline about her having
come so close but having been injured. You know, it
makes you feel good, yep.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Runner up was the Las Vegas Aces, battling back to
win their third WNBA title in four years after a
rough start to the season, and the Minnesota Frost winning
the p WHL title in an overtime filled final series
came in third. Some of the good ridings handful of
people suggested Texas A and M's underdog run through the
NCAA Volleyball tournament that was a really good one. Gotham
(04:43):
FC's title win, and I think the whole underdog's my
ass was part of the recent people really enjoyed that
come from the bottom of the standings once again to
win it all. Victory Sidney McLaughlin Lavroni winning the four
hundred meter flat at World Championships. It's kind of hard
for things like that to win out over major league championships.
But Alex there's a really good argument for that.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, I agree. I'm glad that Sydney got a shout
out here. I mean maybe when she wins both the
Foreigner flat and the Foreigner meter hurdles at LA twenty
twenty eight, then we can consider her for for slicy
you know, really high bar.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That will only happen if the organizers change the schedule,
and as we mentioned on a previous show, there is
still time to fix that fucking giant error. Organizers also
got some writ ins for figure skater Alyssa Lews come
back to win the world championship title. Really excited to
see her at the Olympics and the US sled hockey
team winning the inaugural women's para world title. We had
(05:40):
a show in an episode about that first ever world championship,
so that was exciting. And then runner Faith Kipie again's
fourth world title was also in the mix. So we
got a lot of good writings and it's fun to
see what you know, each person individually thinks is the
biggest story of the year. It didn't seem like there
was as much of an argument about the athlete of
the Year. There were plenty of good writings, but seventy
(06:02):
two point three percent of people said. The Billy Goat
Award for Athlete of the Year was Asia Wilson, and
it's kind of like, duh, yeah, Tim Wushewega eleven point
four percent, Page Becker's thirteen point six percent. And then
we got some votes for Summer Macintosh, Gretchen Walsh, Melissa
Jefferson Wood and Mikayla Shiffern and Sidney McLaughlin Livroni, but Asia, yeah,
(06:22):
ran away with it. Not surprisingly. The next award was
the very unserious sid Colson Award for Social Media Trolling.
This is another one that was just dominated. The voting
went seventy point four percent to the stud buds twenty
four hour live stream at All Star Weekend, the little
bit of inspiration for the opening of today's show as
they did another live stream at the unrivaled opening night
(06:45):
party in advance of tip off, and they were up
to their old shenanigans. And I think the thing is, Alex,
we just want to see athletes being themselves in an
unfiltered way, and the stud Buds allow us that little
peak inside what's really going on.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, for sure, sure it reminds me so much and
I may have even mentioned this before on the show,
but if anyone never watched the ESPN thirty for thirty
doc the ninety nine Ers, it includes all of this
incredible behind the scenes footage from the nineteen ninety nine
World Cup shot by none other than Julie Foudy. He
just had her camcorder with her everywhere. And I remember
the first time I watched that, and I was like,
(07:21):
I get to see the athletes on the bus, like
you never get to see the athletes on the bus,
And watching the Stud Buds just has those same vibes,
but in a more elevated way.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah. It reminds me of when Ali Long and Ashlan
Harris were basically like live streaming the US women's national
team celebrations after their World Cup win, and it felt like,
am I allowed to be watching this? Like I can't
believe I get to see all this? So Congratsulus Stud Buds.
They obviously made a name for themselves and for that
kind of content. This year, Jade and Shaw making her
phone background Emma Hayes in the pink Stud Buds wig
(07:54):
at NWSL Championship weekend got fourteen and a half percent.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And I especially liked. We had a rite that said
that that nominee also needs to include Emma Hayes's response,
which is putting Jaden as her wallpaper. And I appreciated that,
and I regretted not including it in my original nomination.
Maybe it would have gotten more than fourteen percent of
the vote had I done so, you know, very good.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Eleven point eight percent went to kids going Wild whenever
the score of any game was any version of six seven.
One of the write ends, of course, was Asia posting
the receipts of everyone who claims she was having a
regression year. Someone check on Marcus was another good one,
of course, referring to the their gay Marcus about MPP
and Laura Stacey. There are some good ones in there,
(08:38):
but nobody tapped Sid Colson. She honestly could have won
the award again if we hadn't named it after the
next award, the Justine Brown Everyone Watches Women's Sports Award
for our favorite marketing campaign of the year, and Nike's
A one campaign for Asia Wilson took this one sixty
three point nine percent, And I do think it was
the details Alex in those ads.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
They just nailed every every single second of each.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Ad Ausl's Golden Ticket was in third at eleven point
seven percent, and then Coco Goff's sponsors celebrating her French
Open win with a nod toward the rackets that she
forgot to bring with a little checklist.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That was a really good one too. That was nineteen
point four percent.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
People also liked Angel Reese copywriting me bounds. That was
a brilliant turn on the trolls and she made sure
to make some money off of it too. Nike's breaking
for with Faith Kip a gun versus the four Minute
Mile was a really cool event that was sort of
created from nothing, right. It wasn't a competition, it was
something that they created to shine a light on this effort,
(09:37):
which was pretty cool. Everything about Unrivaled season one, that's
a very good vote. They really nailed every piece of
the marketing and promotion for that.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And Alana Mar's s B speech.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Not exactly a marketing campaign, but kind of everything Alona
does is a marketing campaign for rugby and herself, right,
so we'll count it.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Back to that self promotion that we discussed yesterday, but
in a good way.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Necessary Clark Award for Kaitlin Clarking given to a breakout star.
Forty seven point three percent said the debut leagues love
volleyball ausl unrivaled. It was a hell of a year
for brand new leagues. We love to see it, so
they win this one. Lindsey Vaughn coming back after five
(10:18):
years away from the sport, so not exactly a breakout star,
but rebreakout star got third. And Veronica Burton, who we
told you all about, who was basically off a roster
and then made it all the way to being called
into the Team USA camp post WNBA season and was
a huge part of the Valkyrie's success. That is a
great story. We also got some writings for Audie Crooks.
(10:39):
She had a great season last year too, but you know,
top scorer in the nation stringing together an insane run
of games right now. Coach Jackie is a good one
who does women's sports stuff on TikTok and social media.
Also got some votes for Gretchen Walsh Lilly Reel. That's
a great one. Kelsey Mitchell, Sarah Strong. I mean some
of these Kelsey Mitchell's bed at it, but I guess
(11:00):
that she's finally being appreciated for it is a breakout
of sorts, but it is sort of frustrating she has
been at it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Maybe we'd need to add a new award for like
most improved or like finally rising up to the surface.
I don't know, we'll work on the title.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We got another d Yeah, les's about the athlete, more
about the fans and media.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Right, So I've been here, but you finally noticed me award?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Pagebackers also got to vote a breakout,
I guess in some ways as a true bona fide
superstar taking over every aspect. Sure, but she'd been her
for quite some time.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I also appreciate the right end, though I have some
follow up questions for Becky Hammond being doubted and then
clearing up any ideas that she's not that woman what.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I guess. I guess there were maybe a couple doubts
about her coaching ability when the team was struggling.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't think any of them surfaced be on social
media chatter, though, So it's.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Not that woman, Sarah, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We don't really use that phrase quite the same way
as like he's he's the man, she's the woman. The
next award, the Sam Kurr tackling the Pitch Invader Award
for the video we can't stop watching over and over again,
and your nominee for this was absolutely the right answer,
and Ifisa Callier's exit interview calling out Katy Engelbert and
the league sixty seven point six percent for that one
(12:18):
is the winner, coming in second at twenty and a
half percent. Asia Wilson's game winning shot in Game three
of the WNBA Finals over.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
A whole damn lesbian household.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Alza Thomas and Dewana Botterer both in the shot but
not able to stop the shot. And number three ten
point three percent Texas text Mikayla Garcia stealing home in
the College World Series. There are a couple other good
write INDs for this one. I especially like the Chelsea
Grays reaction to Asia's postgame press or comment It's like
(12:47):
forcing a fart. All you get is shit. There were
a couple good moments of Chelsea at Asia and the
pressers together. Asia. Also for a woman who has a wife,
she's pretty good at handling balls.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Those two who are good.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
The Serena Williams cat Suit Award for Best Fit of
the Season sixty eight point five percent agreed with me
WNBA players wearing the pay us What You Owe Us
shirts at All Star Game kind of cheating because it's
it's more about the statement than the fit itself, although
the shirts are pretty fire. Coming in second with twenty
three point nine percent Vladimir Guerrero Junior wearing Marie Fleet
Pulenz jersey ahead of Game seven of the World Series.
(13:25):
We love that crossover. And then coming in third Skyler
Diggin's milk jacket four point nine percent.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
The people can't be bought. I like to see it.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, but you know, we gave the got Milk people
props because it was a good enough campaign that we
remembered it and it stood out and it didn't feel
immediately like, h Corny, this is an ad.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
We were like, what the hell is she wearing?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
People? Also like Azy's phone case not exactly a fit,
but we did love the moment when we saw the
in the mirror shot of the page Backer's girlfriend phone case.
Pretty great. All Ellie the Elephant outfits that absolutely counts.
And then Amber Glen's twenty five to twenty six season
like a prayer short program dress. I'm gonna have to
(14:08):
look that one up. Okay, we're looking this up right now,
Amber Glenn Sharper, Okay, it is it is sick. It
is a madonna nod. It's got the sort of lace corset.
She's got the pearl necklace, like the layers of necklaces,
the lace fingerless gloves. That's pretty fire for figure skating.
That's like very edgy, all right. The next award, the
(14:31):
Minnesota Links Black T Shirt Award for activism, thirty nine
point eight percent went to Angel City captain Sarah Gordon
calling out her teammates racist and transphobic. Op ed angel
City really coming in with all these thirty seven point
six percent. They also got second place with the Immigrant
City t shirts that they wore in response to the
ice raids, and then coming in third nineteen point nine percent,
(14:51):
Simone Bile stepping out of her comfort zone to speak
up for trans athletes. We also got just like vote
for Angel City over overall, which is fair all of
the above. Nicky Hilt's continuing to be the best advocate
for trans athletes. Agree with that one. Amber Glenn for
her advocacy as a queer woman in figure skating, and
the Washington Spirit chanting free DC at every game after
(15:14):
the ice rates. That was another one we totally forgot about.
That was a great one. That was really powerful. You
could hear it on the audio of games the Washington
Spirit fans. The next award the Megan rappino I fucking
yiaded my achilles in the final game award for most ridiculous,
absurd or Frustrating injury fifty three percent went to Kelsey
Mitchell exiting Game five of the WNBA Semi Finals with
(15:34):
rahabdomialysis and joking that she played literally until my wheels
fell off. That was a wild one because we could
not figure out what the injury was for a while,
and when they announced it, we were like, yeah, that
checked out. Your entire team is basically injured, so you've
been carrying them for the entire playoffs. Caitlin Clark getting
hurt with just forty seconds left in an already secured win,
missing the All Star Game in Indianapolis and the rest
(15:55):
of the season. That came in at seventeen point eight
percent and at second twenty five point nine percent. The
injury our Brains suffered as a result of one reporter
repeatedly asking the WNBA to comment on Caitlin Clark's.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Injury so good, my breed still hurts.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Thanks for playing along with that one, guys.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Satusabli's concussion in the finals got a couple write INDs
Juju's torn acl oof, Trinity Rodman hurting her knee in
a Conca CAFF game, and then Savvy King collapsing on
the field.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Shout out to the team medical staff. That was another one.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, a lot of memorable ones. Unfortunately, in twenty twenty five,
the next award, the Bobby Riggs Biggest Jackass of the
Year Award, Forty two point two percent went to the
House Republicans pushing to score Act a bill that threatens
women's sports. Couldn't agree more. But also thirty eight point
nine percent going to Sean maclean's op ed for a
congressional inquiry into the WNBA for fouls against Caitlin Clark
(16:50):
being a hate cry. I can't even say it with
a straight bass. It's so stupid and infuriating. Uh And
fifteen point seven percent third place was aipen to sports
stories and headlines. Yeah, yeah, oh, this is a great
rite in all the misogynists who make ignorant comments about
the WNBACBA negotiations. That's a great one. Kathy Engelbert being
(17:16):
a slimy little weasel. Oh, that's a great one. And
then this person writes in about the Arena Sabalanca Nick
Curios Battle of the Sexes rematch, which we kind of
didn't get a chance to talk about because it happened
over the break, But Arena Sablanca has been bitching about
trans people in sports and the idea that that game
(17:37):
already had almost zero meaning to it and seemed to
be an insult to the original Battle to Sexis and
then adding on to that that it might potentially be
trying to make a statement about trans participation. Everything about
that makes me angry.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The Misha Jones left you broken hearted.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Thanks Obama Award for the player or person who left
the team and most upset you. This was a really
close one. Thirty five point six percent said the Boston
Fleet leaving Hillary Night unprotected and her signing with the
Seattle Torrent thirty one point six percent, Alyssa Thompson leaving
Angel City for Chelsea and twenty seven point one percent.
Then couple dj A Carrington and Melyssa Smith departing from
(18:16):
the Wings for different teams Alex. We didn't talk about
this in the recap of all the things that happened
over the holiday break. We were too excited about the
nuptials and the happy sports engaishit, but we forgot to
mention that one of our favorite Hoops and Geisha couples
broke up, and it does not seem like a very
amicable split.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
No, it does not. Glad that we didn't nominate them
for the next award for the Best gay couple, because
that would not have gotten over very well.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Let's say, had one fair fair, fair farewell rip ripped
to Djona and Melissa. I look forward to seeing who
they end up with next and how that will manifest
on the court against each other next season, if there
is a season. A couple other writings for this uh,
Britney Sykes leaving the Washington Mystics. Sandy Brondello got a
couple of right ins. That's a great one. Kelsey Plumb
(19:03):
leaving the Aces. Yes, we won the title, but I'm
still not over it. Fair fair the will there won't
they Departure of the Connecticut Sun. Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's a really good one.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, like suffering it before it even happens, but it
does feel inevitable. The firing of black women WNBA coaches,
that's a good one. My Leasia full Wiley leaving South
Carolina to play for freaking Kim Mulkey.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
That's a good truly that one.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah. The People's Princess Kristin Press retiring is another good
write in on that one, all right, you mentioned it.
The Megan Rapido and Sue Bird Sports Engaish Award, this
was a runaway seventy eight percent going to Azy Fudd
and Paige Becker's America's Couple really and I don't disagree
with it at all. Nine point seven percent to Hillary
(19:47):
Knight and Britney Bow. Another great couple an Alyssa Thomas
and Dewana Bonner at seven percent. We got some good
right ins for the obvious Marie Filiet Pulan and Laura Stacey.
Couple write ins for Marina Maybury and Senaia Rivers, Kristin
Press and Tobin Heath who revealed that they are in
fact wedded, Tasha Cloud and Isabelle Harris, and there's a
lot of them. There's a lot of good write ends there.
We love all of them. Finally, I think My favorite
(20:10):
Alex of all of the slices was a new award
that we introduced called the film the Blank Guest Award,
where we asked people to name their favorite interview from
the year, and we were really mean about it and
we said just one and most people listened, and it
was so fun seeing all the different responses. There were
some people that came up a lot repeatedly, which you know,
(20:33):
was very cool to see those folks that were very
clear stars, but also just the wide array of folks
that people were really interested to hear from, from the
biggest names to people like Paige Jones that you know,
was kind of maybe an unknown ski jumper until we
did the interview with her, so I loved scrolling through
that me too.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I think the runaway winner was Robin Roberts getting the
most right Ends, and that was such a fun one.
I realized when you were interviewing her, Sarah, that I
knew very little about Robin Roberts, and it probably made
some assumptions about her too that I just had never
realized that I had, and so really appreciated her coming
on and opening up about a lot of really tough topics.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I'm obsessed with Robin Roberts, and I did request that
our editors clip off the part where she told me
how amazing I am, just because like when I have
a low moment, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna instead of
looking in the mirror and hyping myself, I'm gonna look
in my phone and let Robin Roberts hype me up.
Another one that got a lot of votes that made
me so happy was the Unrival Draft with Er fight
(21:38):
Master and Aaron Foley, because I loved that so much
and it was so unhinged and off the cuff and
weird that I wasn't sure if everyone else loved it
as much as we did, but it got so many
votes and that made me really happy because I want
to do some more unhinged, silly, funny shows, and so
we appreciate the slices being all in on that with us.
So thank you to all of you, you guys, seriously,
(22:03):
just all the different answers and votes and write ins.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We just have the best listeners. They know they're shit,
al they do.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
We have very smart listeners and they tell us when
we get stuff wrong, which scares me a little bit,
but we can be wrong Sarah.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's right. That's an interesting point you're making. Maybe we'll
talk about that later in today's show, Alex. In the meantime,
we should probably be thoughtful this year and when things
are happening that might qualify for the slices, we should
like write them down somewhere. Do you think we'll remember that?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I literally have. I'm going to show it to you
right now and you can describe it to our listeners.
I have a bulletin board in front of my list.
I put this up probably in July of last year,
to remind myself to write stuff down. Sarah, what does
it say?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
The list that was attached to her bulletin board says
slices and big letters and nothing else.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's entirely blank, entirely blank. I'm setting an intention to
do better in twenty twenty six and write down things
as they happen.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
But you know what, Alex, I like that you were
keeping an open mind about the slices. You didn't make
any opinions, you didn't make any decisions. You just stayed
wide open. Speaking of how does one stay open to
changing their mind and what does it mean to change
your mind, we'll get into it.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Next Welcome Back slices.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
So I want to preface this by telling you about
something that happened back in December. I got this message
that frankly made my grinch heart grow three sizes. This
guy on social media messaged me directly and he said, quote, Hey, Sarah,
I know you probably won't see this, but I wanted
to reach out and apologize. I used to be a
fan of barstool, and I remember tweeting at you when
(23:44):
there was an argument between you two. I used to
be young, stupid, and angry, but I've grown up and
I'm really embarrassed about the person I used to be.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I'm really sorry. This message kind of blew my mind.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And you know, as they say in the headlines for
videos of like a fox who's friends with a deer,
or like a kid who gives his friend his ice
cream cone, I would say it restored my faith in humanity. Okay,
that's probably not true. I think that ship has sailed
until we make some pretty wholesale changes on this doomed planet.
But it did feel good, and it did feel novel,
and I did feel hopeful after I got it. It
(24:18):
reminded me that some folks are actually willing to grow
and evolve and learn and take in new information and
change their minds. And this guy went on to say
that he was a big fan of me and my
coverage and the show, and I was kind of shocked
to imagine the ven diagram of the person who was
formerly a big barstool fan and now a big Good
Game fan. And it got me in producer Alex, thinking
about change and what does it take for someone to
(24:40):
change their mind and could a goal for us and
for everyone else in twenty six be the idea of
being willing and open to change. So I was listening
to the Happiness Lab podcast recently and there was a
psychologist on, doctor Diana Hill, and she said that curiosity
and openness is the new mindfulness, in fact, so much
so that a lab at UCSB is literally changing its
name from the Center of my mind fulness to the
(25:00):
Center of Openness.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And it kind of makes sense. I think that was such.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Very clear dividing lines right now in politics and social
issues these days, and the way the Internet sort of
rejects connection and discussion in favor of angry engagement and
sort of digging in our heels on an opinion that
the idea of openness and curiosity could actually be really
really key to all of us right now and in
sort of protecting ourselves from becoming the kind of people
(25:26):
who just dig in and argue on the internet. So
when we reached out to all those friends of the
show to ask them for their twenty twenty five memories
and twenty twenty six intentions, we decided to also ask
them for a time that they changed their mind. Now,
we did not demand depth or profundity. We just asked
for a real life example for their life. So we
got a little bit of lightness and a little bit
of depth. Here are a few of the responses that
(25:47):
we got. First. They are Laville, managing director at the Collective,
which is the women's division of the Wasserman Talent Agency,
and she shared one that I've actually been challenging myself
to stay open to learn about and better understand.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Your mind comes really with the ability and the humility
maybe to say that you might be wrong on something.
And so for me that really centered around in the
past two years, around my views on the Middle East,
which were really shaped by this kind of distance, headlines, noise,
a lot of different actions coming out of the region
as well, but when it came to women and women's sports,
(26:22):
I really wanted to lean in and ensure that my
assumptions weren't things that I was just carrying around, but
really that to dive in and try to understand it,
and so I did. I've explored the region several times,
I've been over many times, I've been to different parts
of the region.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I have really been able to stop kind of.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Defending what I thought I knew and started listening and learning.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it turns out.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
That's where the picture really got clearer for me, and
I was able to be more of a student of
what was happening not only in that region but around
the world for women and women's sports, which was very
interesting and cool to see different regions at different places,
but specific to the Middle East, really I see a
region making like real, intentional and serious bets on women
(27:12):
and women's sports, not just as this kind of symbolic gesture,
but really an investment and infrastructure and regional and ground
youth sports and programs that really come up through different regions,
really looking leaning in to make investment and influence shaped
by women there, from my senior leaders to young girls
(27:35):
getting into the game for the first time, So very
exciting way to change my mind and to feel kind
of surprised by that journey, I guess would be the
word I would use next.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Here's Nicole Hosey, hockey writer for the usc Cho and
the Victory Press.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
A thing that I've changed my mind about is carrying
the reason somebody is at a sporting event, whether they
are interested in the sport, whether they got a free ticket,
whether they just want to take pictures for the Graham, whatever,
the reason is that somebody came through the door is
both irrelevant and none of my business. If they are
at that sporting event, that is an opportunity for me
(28:11):
to make a friend and also to introduce something that
I love. And so I think there used to be
a bit more pitting women against each other or proving that,
you know, I'm not like other girls and I belong here.
It's very early two thousands, having graduated and attempting to
break into sports journalism mindset, you know, being anti pink
hat and all those silly little things. Some of it's
(28:34):
getting older and some of it is just understanding that
like we need as women need to be together and
not fighting with each other. There's enough people that stand
in our way. So I think that's a big thing
that I changed in my mind about was caring what
got somebody into sports or what got them through the door,
and instead just being interested in learning people's story and hopefully,
(28:56):
you know, introducing them to something that I'm so passionate about.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Here's Andrea Yack, co founder of Minnesota Aurora and chair
of the Aurora FC Board.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
A time I changed my mind about something is cheerleaders.
When I was younger, I thought the cheerleaders were just
in it to meet the athletes. And only later, as
I became an adult and started to get to know
the cheerleaders did I realize that they loved the sports
as much as I did, that they worked incredibly hard,
(29:28):
really long days, and that they were every bit as
dedicated to their profession as I was. We were just
supporting sports in a different way.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Next Aaron Foley, comedian, TV writer and the co host
and producer of the podcast Origin Story the eighty five RS.
I love this one.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
So I was doing stand up comedy in New York
City for about five years, and my mind was set
that I was not going to talk about my personal
life because it was too scary and vulnerable, and it
was too it was just too much to even think about.
But then I started watching you know, all my favorites
(30:08):
in New York, and why I love them so much
is because, like they talked about their personal life, and
so I changed my mind and I was like, I've
got to try this because also talking about my personal
life was talking about.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Being gay and dating and all of it.
Speaker 8 (30:28):
So anyway, it changed my mind, and it changed everything
because stand up became so much more fun and such
a better connection with the audience, and yeah, it just, yeah,
it changed everything. But it was very hard to get there.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It was very hard to get there. It's very hard
to change my change my mind. Yeah, about six years
finally Shimmy Miller broadcast in studio Analysts, and she's got
one of the more fascinating sliding doors career stories I've
ever heard. I did not know this about her.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
A time I changed my mind about something, it actually
changed the total trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Little known fact.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I was a police officer right out of college, and
two years into the career, I changed my mind. I
didn't want to do it anymore, and in very dramatic fashion.
I walked into my chief's office and slid my badge
and gun across this desk and said, I changed my mind.
I don't want to do this anymore. I don't like
who I'm becoming. I don't like what I see every day.
(31:28):
It's stealing my joy. I'm out and changing my mind
about being a cop. It changed my whole life because
it drove me back into sports, first as a professional athlete,
then a college basketball coach for twenty five years, and
now as a broadcaster. But everything that I have of
(31:48):
any significance, my friends, my wife, where I live is
because I changed my mind on that day.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So thanks to all of them for sending And I
sort of considered these answers from our friends just a little,
tiny dipped toe into the change waters, a really good start.
But in the future I might force folks to dig
a little deeper for a profound change, like really meaningful
examples of perspective that shifted, Alex, do you have one
of those that you're willing to share about changing your
(32:19):
mind about something?
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah? I changed my mind on abortion. Wow, And like
in some ways, it was like, I guess, a coming
of age type of thing, like because it happened when
I was in college, but I'd say that, like, when
I started college, I was pro life, although I now
hate that term, but yeah, I distinctly remember having a
(32:42):
conversation with a friend of mine in college and being like,
I think people should live with the choices that they make,
and I very much support abortion rights. Now, I still
feel like I have a little bit more of a
gray area than what I think a lot of like
abortion activists portray in that. There was a really fantastic
(33:06):
two part series a couple of years ago from the
More Perfect podcast about like the original Roe v. Wade
decision and how the viability line was initially defined. And
one of the things they discussed though, is how the
term baby has been totally nixed by the pro abortion
movement and yet for a lot of people who experience
(33:27):
pregnancy loss like they have lost their baby, and how
it creates this really tough division where somebody who is
supportive of abortion rights isn't allowed to consider their baby
their baby because they don't want it to be harmful
to the overall goal R and I. And that just
(33:48):
really resonated with me because I'm like, I struggle with
it a little bit still, but like also very much
want people to have access to healthcare.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I feel like language without context and weaponized language is
problematic in so many instances that are similar to that one,
whether it be trans inclusion or other major hot button topics.
Is this idea of turning the intent of something into
something that you can use as a sort of cudgel
instead of the intent behind it. I've been ruminating on
(34:19):
something kind of similar lately, so as someone who has
chosen not to have children, and I'm very happy with
that decision. I really hate when people say start a family,
because I have a family, and I don't think when
you have kids you're starting a family. You could say
growing a family. But I also am not going to
hold it against people who use that terminology. I'm not
(34:39):
like mad at them for that. I just think it
feels limiting to people who can't have kids or choose
not to have them, and the same thing applies to that.
It's like, yes, you can call that thing, even the
idea of that thing your baby. Right Like, let's say
you find out you can't have kids, the idea of
having them can still be baby that you feel like
(35:00):
you lost. But Also I understand how specificity of language
can be used and really damaging in dangerous ways that
prevent rights and access for people. I'm really glad you
offered up one that's pretty serious, because I have two
that are a little bit serious, and I'll I'll just
(35:21):
do them quickly.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
But it sort of makes me cringe and like feel.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Bad that I used to feel differently. But I think
that's the point is you're supposed to be able to
look back and be like, I didn't have enough information
or lived experience, and now I change my mind, and
like that's what we want from people. So one is
I remember in college thinking that like being bisexual was
like made up, I like not really like if someone
I knew was actually telling me about it, I'd be
(35:45):
like okay.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
But I kind of just thought, how do you like everyone?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Don't you have to be like, I'm attracted to men,
So isn't that like you're either attracted to men or women?
Like that's how it is. And then very soon after,
like within five years or so, I remember being like, oh,
I get it. They're just like attracted to a person.
And that's not to say that bisexual people don't care
about the body parts. It's that for me personally, I
was like, don't you have to like one or the other?
(36:11):
Isn't it the natural instinct to be into one set
of body parts or the other set of body parts?
And now I realized that absolutely not, that's not it
at all. But having been very straight and surrounded entirely
pretty much by straight people for my entire life up
until after college, it just didn't really feel accessible to
me to understand the nuances of sexuality in that way.
(36:33):
We weren't having the same conversations because I'm again quite
old back in the day, and there weren't any openly
gay people around me in college, which is pretty wild.
Now my teammates and people I know are now openly gay,
but they weren't in high school or college.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Listen, I'm a little bit younger than you, and that
was true for many of my teammates in college. And
I went to women's college.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, yeah, no, all mices. They should have just been
getting after it.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
But that's so interesting, Sarah, because I also maybe, even
as you're saying this, I realize, like I think I
sometimes maybe still personally struggle a little bit, like I
can understand very much somebody who's bisexual, like as they're dating,
and then I find it interesting, right when they get
married commit like it feels really hard to not then
(37:25):
associate their like quote unquote final destination, like they made
a choice, Like, no, they're still bisexual, They're just in
a relationship. And I think that feels a little bit
like a stuck point in just like my own brain
a little bit. Yeah, to work on that one.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's a good one to work on. I feel like
anyone having been married for almost ten years now, your
final destination doesn't mean that that's the only one you
ever could have ended up with. It just means it's
the best choice or the best choice for now. But yeah,
I h the other one I have is more embarrassing.
But again the results of a very sheltered, sort of
(38:01):
limited life existence. I grew up in a very privileged
area that was predominantly white. Then I went to an
ivy League school that had more diversity but was still
very specific kind of space, and my own opinions of
myself and the decisions I made it kind of sound
a little bit like yours, Like, well, everyone should just
live with their decisions, And I guess that's how it goes.
I was like the kind of person that was like, well,
if you're getting stopped by the police, then you probably
(38:23):
did something wrong. Or if you hate the police, or
if you're afraid of the police, or if you're worried
about the police not helping you, it's probably because you
have a reason to which means like you're a problem,
or you've done something wrong, or you're worried because you
do That is so untrue, and the mountain of evidence
(38:44):
continues to grow with each day. And yeah, I just
I think at the time I was like, well, I
don't do anything illegal, so I don't worry about the police,
and neither should anyone else if they're a good person.
And it's just so privileged. And I remember reading glennam
Doyle's book. She has a chapter in Untamed that's about
the impact of media and what we sort of digest
without even paying attention and knowing that we're being propagandized.
(39:07):
And she speaks specifically to the show Cops.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
And that we all grew up with a show where it.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Was entertainment to watch people, predominantly people of color, be
arrested and made an example of for their choices. And
like with zero context or nuance or understanding of what
was going on, but also being presented to us. And
there's a really great Howard Bryant piece about the role
of media in propagandizing America about police in America and
(39:33):
how many shows lionize police officers and teach us that
they're the saviors and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
And I just paw patrol, even Paw Patrol.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
But yeah, I think part of growing up is recognizing
how many things you've internalized subconsciously as a result of
intention and not accident, and then deciding that you want
to unlearn it and move forward with a different perspective.
And that's how I feel about those things that I
change my mind about. Yeah, we did not give us
(40:04):
a prompt to our friends of the show to be
quite so deep as Alex and I went, but I
think we are really fascinated in how you change your minds,
particularly when there's such a giant percentage of our country
right now that we wish would change their minds.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
But I want to encourage more people to be able
to engage with topics that allow them to take a
stance based in their morals and their ethics. And the
way that they want the world to look, while still
acknowledging that maybe they have some doubts or reservations and
those are fine as well, and that if you don't
(40:40):
allow people to have some grace in seeing things as
more complicated, that it's really, really then hard to convince
somebody to change their opinion on something.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, I think just respecting people's gray areas as potentially
the result of their experiences and perspective as a host
to them being under educated or flat out wrong would
allow for better conversations and discussion than what we do now,
which is to presume that that person knows nothing and
that they're believing something or the other because they've been misinformed.
(41:12):
There's a podcast called You Are Not So Smart, and
the host had an author on who wrote a book
about changing minds, and there was this wild statistic about
like how rare it is for someone to change their
mind because you just give them information like there, if
it's something serious that they've dug their heels in on,
they're less likely to change their mind because you give
(41:33):
them information about how they're wrong, And they're more likely
to change them if you ask them questions about why
they have that opinion, and they talk themselves out of
their own opinion. Why did you vote for that person?
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Like?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
What percentage would you say voted? Oh, seventy five percent?
Oh wow, seventy five percent? Why would you not say
one hundred? Then they start listing the things wrong with
the person they voted for and start to have a
conversation about what's wrong, instead of you yelling at them
for being a moron for making that decision, them getting
defensive and bearing their head in the sand. Anyway, this
(42:04):
is a conversation for another time in full, but I
wanted to bring it up because you and I both
think in this show and in general, having those nuanced
and tough conversations is really important. And giving people grace
for having differing opinions on these things and welcoming them
in instead of calling them out might be more useful
in the future. And so we're going to check back
in with this. I was listening to yet another podcast.
(42:25):
Gretchen Rubin, who's a habit change expert author of The
Happiness Project, was on NPR's Life Kit podcast, and she
suggested marking a dan your calendar in late February is
sort of like your accountability day to see if you've
stuck to your resolutions or your intentions, and then also
marking July second as the halfway point to the year
to check in with yourself again. So I think we'll
take that advice here will mark a point near the
(42:48):
end of February or early March to see how we're
all doing, not just with the intentions that we set
in yesterday's show, but also sort of the idea of
being open to change, changing ourselves if desired, changing our
minds when we get new information or perspective. So if
you have a really memorable change of mind to share,
we would love to hear it and add you to
our sort of accountability that we'll check in with because
(43:09):
we love that you're listing. But you know we always
want to get you in the game every day too,
so that's our good gameplay of the day. Let us
know when you've changed your mind, how did you know
you had gotten something wrong or how did you know
you wanted to feel differently about it? What ended up
tipping the scales for you? We always love to hear
from you. Hit us up on email, good game at
wondermedianetwork dot com, or leave us a voicemail at eight
seven two two o four fifty seventy and don't forget
(43:31):
to subscribe rate and review slices. It's real easy.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Watch a headshot that's more than just a smile.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Rating ten out of ten Heaping Plates of Spaghetti review. Okay, So,
Italian skeleton athlete Alessandro Fumagali has a headshot that pops
up next to her name when she's about to race,
and it's not just the usual smiling, floating head. Alessandra
brought a full plate of spaghetti to the media center
for her photos, and so her headshot shows her holding
(43:59):
a giant played of spaghetti and the other hand lifting
this overflowing fork full of pasta into her mouth like
she's literally eating this giant mouthful of spaghetti in her photo,
which absolute legend. And in his headshot, her Italian teammate
Mattia Gaspari is sipping an espresso like the most Italian
things ever, no notes the Italians win. I'm going to
(44:20):
link to a behind the scenes video of Alessandra shooting
that headshot and bringing the spaghetti to the green screen.
It's so good. Also got a shout out Ken Childs
of sliding on ice dot Com for sharing those headshots
he was covering the event where they popped up, and
his sight sliding on ice dot com and Ken himself.
They're just must follows if you're into the sliding sports.
He's at the Kenchild's dot com on Blue Sky. We'll
(44:42):
link to both of those in the show notes. All right,
now it's your turn slices, rate and review. Thanks for listening,
See you tomorrow. Good game, housing spaghetti in your headshot,
Good game being open to admitting when you've gotten something wrong.
You to the people who claim they've never been wrong
about anything ever. Big Red Flag Good Game with Sarah
(45:06):
Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie Grace, Lynch,
Taylor Williamson and Lucy Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer. Our editors are
(45:28):
Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from
Avery LOFTUS and I'm your host, Sarah Spain.
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're demanding
the stead Buds do a live stream of the whole
unrivaled season, get a body cam for in game content,
whatever it takes, Truman show a twenty four to seven
You won't. It's Tuesday, January sixth, and on today's show
will be announcing the winners of the twenty twenty five
slices the second annual Good Game with Sarah Spain Awards
(00:22):
for Excellence, Eminence, and Embarrassment in Women's Sports. Also, some
friends of the show returned to put a button on
our New Year's ponderings, discussing a big theme for us
this year, openness and willingness to change, plus shuffling up
and down the leaderboard, sliding to victory, and an Italian
athlete we're finding it impossible not to love. It's all
(00:44):
coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's what
you need to know today. A few college hoop storylines
to tie up from the weekend, including Number twelve Vanderbilt
upsetting Number five l LSU sixty five to sixty one
on Sunday night, handing the Tigers their second straight loss.
(01:05):
With the win the Vanderbilt Commodores remained undefeated with a
fifteen to zero record to start the season. Oh and
by the way, those number twelve and number five rankings
I just mentioned they don't mean jack anymore because there
was a lot of movement following a handful of big
upsets this weekend. While the top four teams Yukon, Texas,
South Carolina, and UCLA all stayed put, pretty much everyone
else moved up or down with their two losses to
(01:28):
open the new year. LSU fell all the way to
number twelve, while Vanderbilt climbed to number seven in the poll.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
We'll link to the full top twenty five in the
show notes.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Looking ahead. One big game on the schedule tonight, with
number twenty one USC hosting Oregon Trojans looking to bounce
back after getting thrashed by UCLA eighty to forty six
over the weekend. More hoops News Unrivaled tipped off yesterday
with a perfectly scripted finish to the opening game, co
founder Brianna Stewart hitting the game winner to lead her
miss team over the Hives seventy two to fifty six.
(01:58):
Alisha Gray led five Missed players and double digits She
had twenty one points nine boards in the win to hockey.
There's one PWHL game on the schedule tonight, with the
third ranked New York Sirens traveling to the fourth ranked
Toronto Scepters. Then tomorrow night, Hillary Knight returns to Boston
for the first time this season with her sixth ranks
Seattle Torrent taken on the Boston Fleet at Aganis Arena
(02:20):
to the World of Sliding aka bob sleds, skeleton and luge.
All three sports had World Cup stops over the weekend,
with US athletes showing up in a big way first.
The Skeleton World Cup continued over the weekend with the
stop in Winterberg, Germany. Friend of the Show Mistique Roe
finished second to Austrias Janine Flock for her first podium
finish of the season. Meantime, in luge American Summer Bricher
(02:42):
won the singles event over the weekend in Sugooleda, Latvia.
It's the seventh World Cup singles win for Britcher, who
already owns the record for most World Cup wins for
a US luge athlete. We got to take a break
when we come back, honoring everything from fits to chips,
we unveil the winners of the twenty twenty five slices.
(03:07):
Welcome back slices, Alex, get in.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Here, Hello again Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We got a lot of votes for the slices, nearly
two hundred, so shout out to everyone who voted in
the Good Game election. I guess we'll call it very
good to see everyone taking their civic duty seriously.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I just hope that they have the same seriousness for
the midterms later this.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Year, one would hope. Yes. I also loved the writ ins.
Perhaps fewer of those for the midterms. I think we
should stick to people who will get elected, but the
writ ins are so fun to read during this and
just see the stuff that we forgot from the year
in sports, but also to see which ones of our
favorites ended up emerging victorious. So let's get started. First
(03:51):
up with the winner of the Brandy chest Ain Sports
Bras Scene Around the World Award for Best Moment in
Women's Sports. And it was my suggestion you winning the
twenty twenty five NCAA title that received forty seven point
three percent of the vote, and I think Alex I
was actually surprised to go back and figure out how
long it had been since Ay one, because they're always
in the mix, and I think that's part of the
(04:11):
reason they got a little bit of the bump.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
This year, Yeah for sure. And I don't think page
Becker is heard in the whole storyline about her having
come so close but having been injured. You know, it
makes you feel good, yep.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Runner up was the Las Vegas Aces, battling back to
win their third WNBA title in four years after a
rough start to the season, and the Minnesota Frost winning
the p WHL title in an overtime filled final series
came in third. Some of the good ridings handful of
people suggested Texas A and M's underdog run through the
NCAA Volleyball tournament that was a really good one. Gotham
(04:43):
FC's title win, and I think the whole underdog's my
ass was part of the recent people really enjoyed that
come from the bottom of the standings once again to
win it all. Victory Sidney McLaughlin Lavroni winning the four
hundred meter flat at World Championships. It's kind of hard
for things like that to win out over major league championships.
But Alex there's a really good argument for that.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, I agree. I'm glad that Sydney got a shout
out here. I mean maybe when she wins both the
Foreigner flat and the Foreigner meter hurdles at LA twenty
twenty eight, then we can consider her for for slicy
you know, really high bar.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That will only happen if the organizers change the schedule,
and as we mentioned on a previous show, there is
still time to fix that fucking giant error. Organizers also
got some writ ins for figure skater Alyssa Lews come
back to win the world championship title. Really excited to
see her at the Olympics and the US sled hockey
team winning the inaugural women's para world title. We had
(05:40):
a show in an episode about that first ever world championship,
so that was exciting. And then runner Faith Kipie again's
fourth world title was also in the mix. So we
got a lot of good writings and it's fun to
see what you know, each person individually thinks is the
biggest story of the year. It didn't seem like there
was as much of an argument about the athlete of
the Year. There were plenty of good writings, but seventy
(06:02):
two point three percent of people said. The Billy Goat
Award for Athlete of the Year was Asia Wilson, and
it's kind of like, duh, yeah, Tim Wushewega eleven point
four percent, Page Becker's thirteen point six percent. And then
we got some votes for Summer Macintosh, Gretchen Walsh, Melissa
Jefferson Wood and Mikayla Shiffern and Sidney McLaughlin Livroni, but Asia, yeah,
(06:22):
ran away with it. Not surprisingly. The next award was
the very unserious sid Colson Award for Social Media Trolling.
This is another one that was just dominated. The voting
went seventy point four percent to the stud buds twenty
four hour live stream at All Star Weekend, the little
bit of inspiration for the opening of today's show as
they did another live stream at the unrivaled opening night
(06:45):
party in advance of tip off, and they were up
to their old shenanigans. And I think the thing is, Alex,
we just want to see athletes being themselves in an
unfiltered way, and the stud Buds allow us that little
peak inside what's really going on.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, for sure, sure it reminds me so much and
I may have even mentioned this before on the show,
but if anyone never watched the ESPN thirty for thirty
doc the ninety nine Ers, it includes all of this
incredible behind the scenes footage from the nineteen ninety nine
World Cup shot by none other than Julie Foudy. He
just had her camcorder with her everywhere. And I remember
the first time I watched that, and I was like,
(07:21):
I get to see the athletes on the bus, like
you never get to see the athletes on the bus,
And watching the Stud Buds just has those same vibes,
but in a more elevated way.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah. It reminds me of when Ali Long and Ashlan
Harris were basically like live streaming the US women's national
team celebrations after their World Cup win, and it felt like,
am I allowed to be watching this? Like I can't
believe I get to see all this? So Congratsulus Stud Buds.
They obviously made a name for themselves and for that
kind of content. This year, Jade and Shaw making her
phone background Emma Hayes in the pink Stud Buds wig
(07:54):
at NWSL Championship weekend got fourteen and a half percent.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And I especially liked. We had a rite that said
that that nominee also needs to include Emma Hayes's response,
which is putting Jaden as her wallpaper. And I appreciated that,
and I regretted not including it in my original nomination.
Maybe it would have gotten more than fourteen percent of
the vote had I done so, you know, very good.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Eleven point eight percent went to kids going Wild whenever
the score of any game was any version of six seven.
One of the write ends, of course, was Asia posting
the receipts of everyone who claims she was having a
regression year. Someone check on Marcus was another good one,
of course, referring to the their gay Marcus about MPP
and Laura Stacey. There are some good ones in there,
(08:38):
but nobody tapped Sid Colson. She honestly could have won
the award again if we hadn't named it after the
next award, the Justine Brown Everyone Watches Women's Sports Award
for our favorite marketing campaign of the year, and Nike's
A one campaign for Asia Wilson took this one sixty
three point nine percent, And I do think it was
the details Alex in those ads.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
They just nailed every every single second of each.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Ad Ausl's Golden Ticket was in third at eleven point
seven percent, and then Coco Goff's sponsors celebrating her French
Open win with a nod toward the rackets that she
forgot to bring with a little checklist.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That was a really good one too. That was nineteen
point four percent.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
People also liked Angel Reese copywriting me bounds. That was
a brilliant turn on the trolls and she made sure
to make some money off of it too. Nike's breaking
for with Faith Kip a gun versus the four Minute
Mile was a really cool event that was sort of
created from nothing, right. It wasn't a competition, it was
something that they created to shine a light on this effort,
(09:37):
which was pretty cool. Everything about Unrivaled season one, that's
a very good vote. They really nailed every piece of
the marketing and promotion for that.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And Alana Mar's s B speech.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Not exactly a marketing campaign, but kind of everything Alona
does is a marketing campaign for rugby and herself, right,
so we'll count it.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Back to that self promotion that we discussed yesterday, but
in a good way.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Necessary Clark Award for Kaitlin Clarking given to a breakout star.
Forty seven point three percent said the debut leagues love
volleyball ausl unrivaled. It was a hell of a year
for brand new leagues. We love to see it, so
they win this one. Lindsey Vaughn coming back after five
(10:18):
years away from the sport, so not exactly a breakout star,
but rebreakout star got third. And Veronica Burton, who we
told you all about, who was basically off a roster
and then made it all the way to being called
into the Team USA camp post WNBA season and was
a huge part of the Valkyrie's success. That is a
great story. We also got some writings for Audie Crooks.
(10:39):
She had a great season last year too, but you know,
top scorer in the nation stringing together an insane run
of games right now. Coach Jackie is a good one
who does women's sports stuff on TikTok and social media.
Also got some votes for Gretchen Walsh Lilly Reel. That's
a great one. Kelsey Mitchell, Sarah Strong. I mean some
of these Kelsey Mitchell's bed at it, but I guess
(11:00):
that she's finally being appreciated for it is a breakout
of sorts, but it is sort of frustrating she has
been at it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Maybe we'd need to add a new award for like
most improved or like finally rising up to the surface.
I don't know, we'll work on the title.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We got another d Yeah, les's about the athlete, more
about the fans and media.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Right, So I've been here, but you finally noticed me award?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Pagebackers also got to vote a breakout,
I guess in some ways as a true bona fide
superstar taking over every aspect. Sure, but she'd been her
for quite some time.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I also appreciate the right end, though I have some
follow up questions for Becky Hammond being doubted and then
clearing up any ideas that she's not that woman what.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I guess. I guess there were maybe a couple doubts
about her coaching ability when the team was struggling.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I don't think any of them surfaced be on social
media chatter, though, So it's.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Not that woman, Sarah, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We don't really use that phrase quite the same way
as like he's he's the man, she's the woman. The
next award, the Sam Kurr tackling the Pitch Invader Award
for the video we can't stop watching over and over again,
and your nominee for this was absolutely the right answer,
and Ifisa Callier's exit interview calling out Katy Engelbert and
the league sixty seven point six percent for that one
(12:18):
is the winner, coming in second at twenty and a
half percent. Asia Wilson's game winning shot in Game three
of the WNBA Finals over.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
A whole damn lesbian household.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Alza Thomas and Dewana Botterer both in the shot but
not able to stop the shot. And number three ten
point three percent Texas text Mikayla Garcia stealing home in
the College World Series. There are a couple other good
write INDs for this one. I especially like the Chelsea
Grays reaction to Asia's postgame press or comment It's like
(12:47):
forcing a fart. All you get is shit. There were
a couple good moments of Chelsea at Asia and the
pressers together. Asia. Also for a woman who has a wife,
she's pretty good at handling balls.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Those two who are good.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
The Serena Williams cat Suit Award for Best Fit of
the Season sixty eight point five percent agreed with me
WNBA players wearing the pay us What You Owe Us
shirts at All Star Game kind of cheating because it's
it's more about the statement than the fit itself, although
the shirts are pretty fire. Coming in second with twenty
three point nine percent Vladimir Guerrero Junior wearing Marie Fleet
Pulenz jersey ahead of Game seven of the World Series.
(13:25):
We love that crossover. And then coming in third Skyler
Diggin's milk jacket four point nine percent.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
The people can't be bought. I like to see it.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, but you know, we gave the got Milk people
props because it was a good enough campaign that we
remembered it and it stood out and it didn't feel
immediately like, h Corny, this is an ad.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
We were like, what the hell is she wearing?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
People? Also like Azy's phone case not exactly a fit,
but we did love the moment when we saw the
in the mirror shot of the page Backer's girlfriend phone case.
Pretty great. All Ellie the Elephant outfits that absolutely counts.
And then Amber Glen's twenty five to twenty six season
like a prayer short program dress. I'm gonna have to
(14:08):
look that one up. Okay, we're looking this up right now,
Amber Glenn Sharper, Okay, it is it is sick. It
is a madonna nod. It's got the sort of lace corset.
She's got the pearl necklace, like the layers of necklaces,
the lace fingerless gloves. That's pretty fire for figure skating.
That's like very edgy, all right. The next award, the
(14:31):
Minnesota Links Black T Shirt Award for activism, thirty nine
point eight percent went to Angel City captain Sarah Gordon
calling out her teammates racist and transphobic. Op ed angel
City really coming in with all these thirty seven point
six percent. They also got second place with the Immigrant
City t shirts that they wore in response to the
ice raids, and then coming in third nineteen point nine percent,
(14:51):
Simone Bile stepping out of her comfort zone to speak
up for trans athletes. We also got just like vote
for Angel City over overall, which is fair all of
the above. Nicky Hilt's continuing to be the best advocate
for trans athletes. Agree with that one. Amber Glenn for
her advocacy as a queer woman in figure skating, and
the Washington Spirit chanting free DC at every game after
(15:14):
the ice rates. That was another one we totally forgot about.
That was a great one. That was really powerful. You
could hear it on the audio of games the Washington
Spirit fans. The next award the Megan rappino I fucking
yiaded my achilles in the final game award for most ridiculous,
absurd or Frustrating injury fifty three percent went to Kelsey
Mitchell exiting Game five of the WNBA Semi Finals with
(15:34):
rahabdomialysis and joking that she played literally until my wheels
fell off. That was a wild one because we could
not figure out what the injury was for a while,
and when they announced it, we were like, yeah, that
checked out. Your entire team is basically injured, so you've
been carrying them for the entire playoffs. Caitlin Clark getting
hurt with just forty seconds left in an already secured win,
missing the All Star Game in Indianapolis and the rest
(15:55):
of the season. That came in at seventeen point eight
percent and at second twenty five point nine percent. The
injury our Brains suffered as a result of one reporter
repeatedly asking the WNBA to comment on Caitlin Clark's.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Injury so good, my breed still hurts.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Thanks for playing along with that one, guys.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Satusabli's concussion in the finals got a couple write INDs
Juju's torn acl oof, Trinity Rodman hurting her knee in
a Conca CAFF game, and then Savvy King collapsing on
the field.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Shout out to the team medical staff. That was another one.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, a lot of memorable ones. Unfortunately, in twenty twenty five,
the next award, the Bobby Riggs Biggest Jackass of the
Year Award, Forty two point two percent went to the
House Republicans pushing to score Act a bill that threatens
women's sports. Couldn't agree more. But also thirty eight point
nine percent going to Sean maclean's op ed for a
congressional inquiry into the WNBA for fouls against Caitlin Clark
(16:50):
being a hate cry. I can't even say it with
a straight bass. It's so stupid and infuriating. Uh And
fifteen point seven percent third place was aipen to sports
stories and headlines. Yeah, yeah, oh, this is a great
rite in all the misogynists who make ignorant comments about
the WNBACBA negotiations. That's a great one. Kathy Engelbert being
(17:16):
a slimy little weasel. Oh, that's a great one. And
then this person writes in about the Arena Sabalanca Nick
Curios Battle of the Sexes rematch, which we kind of
didn't get a chance to talk about because it happened
over the break, But Arena Sablanca has been bitching about
trans people in sports and the idea that that game
(17:37):
already had almost zero meaning to it and seemed to
be an insult to the original Battle to Sexis and
then adding on to that that it might potentially be
trying to make a statement about trans participation. Everything about
that makes me angry.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The Misha Jones left you broken hearted.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Thanks Obama Award for the player or person who left
the team and most upset you. This was a really
close one. Thirty five point six percent said the Boston
Fleet leaving Hillary Night unprotected and her signing with the
Seattle Torrent thirty one point six percent, Alyssa Thompson leaving
Angel City for Chelsea and twenty seven point one percent.
Then couple dj A Carrington and Melyssa Smith departing from
(18:16):
the Wings for different teams Alex. We didn't talk about
this in the recap of all the things that happened
over the holiday break. We were too excited about the
nuptials and the happy sports engaishit, but we forgot to
mention that one of our favorite Hoops and Geisha couples
broke up, and it does not seem like a very
amicable split.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
No, it does not. Glad that we didn't nominate them
for the next award for the Best gay couple, because
that would not have gotten over very well.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Let's say, had one fair fair, fair farewell rip ripped
to Djona and Melissa. I look forward to seeing who
they end up with next and how that will manifest
on the court against each other next season, if there
is a season. A couple other writings for this uh,
Britney Sykes leaving the Washington Mystics. Sandy Brondello got a
couple of right ins. That's a great one. Kelsey Plumb
(19:03):
leaving the Aces. Yes, we won the title, but I'm
still not over it. Fair fair the will there won't
they Departure of the Connecticut Sun. Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's a really good one.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, like suffering it before it even happens, but it
does feel inevitable. The firing of black women WNBA coaches,
that's a good one. My Leasia full Wiley leaving South
Carolina to play for freaking Kim Mulkey.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
That's a good truly that one.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah. The People's Princess Kristin Press retiring is another good
write in on that one, all right, you mentioned it.
The Megan Rapido and Sue Bird Sports Engaish Award, this
was a runaway seventy eight percent going to Azy Fudd
and Paige Becker's America's Couple really and I don't disagree
with it at all. Nine point seven percent to Hillary
(19:47):
Knight and Britney Bow. Another great couple an Alyssa Thomas
and Dewana Bonner at seven percent. We got some good
right ins for the obvious Marie Filiet Pulan and Laura Stacey.
Couple write ins for Marina Maybury and Senaia Rivers, Kristin
Press and Tobin Heath who revealed that they are in
fact wedded, Tasha Cloud and Isabelle Harris, and there's a
lot of them. There's a lot of good write ends there.
We love all of them. Finally, I think My favorite
(20:10):
Alex of all of the slices was a new award
that we introduced called the film the Blank Guest Award,
where we asked people to name their favorite interview from
the year, and we were really mean about it and
we said just one and most people listened, and it
was so fun seeing all the different responses. There were
some people that came up a lot repeatedly, which you know,
(20:33):
was very cool to see those folks that were very
clear stars, but also just the wide array of folks
that people were really interested to hear from, from the
biggest names to people like Paige Jones that you know,
was kind of maybe an unknown ski jumper until we
did the interview with her, so I loved scrolling through
that me too.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I think the runaway winner was Robin Roberts getting the
most right Ends, and that was such a fun one.
I realized when you were interviewing her, Sarah, that I
knew very little about Robin Roberts, and it probably made
some assumptions about her too that I just had never
realized that I had, and so really appreciated her coming
on and opening up about a lot of really tough topics.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I'm obsessed with Robin Roberts, and I did request that
our editors clip off the part where she told me
how amazing I am, just because like when I have
a low moment, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna instead of
looking in the mirror and hyping myself, I'm gonna look
in my phone and let Robin Roberts hype me up.
Another one that got a lot of votes that made
me so happy was the Unrival Draft with Er fight
(21:38):
Master and Aaron Foley, because I loved that so much
and it was so unhinged and off the cuff and
weird that I wasn't sure if everyone else loved it
as much as we did, but it got so many
votes and that made me really happy because I want
to do some more unhinged, silly, funny shows, and so
we appreciate the slices being all in on that with us.
So thank you to all of you, you guys, seriously,
(22:03):
just all the different answers and votes and write ins.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We just have the best listeners. They know they're shit,
al they do.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
We have very smart listeners and they tell us when
we get stuff wrong, which scares me a little bit,
but we can be wrong Sarah.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's right. That's an interesting point you're making. Maybe we'll
talk about that later in today's show, Alex. In the meantime,
we should probably be thoughtful this year and when things
are happening that might qualify for the slices, we should
like write them down somewhere. Do you think we'll remember that?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I literally have. I'm going to show it to you
right now and you can describe it to our listeners.
I have a bulletin board in front of my list.
I put this up probably in July of last year,
to remind myself to write stuff down. Sarah, what does
it say?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
The list that was attached to her bulletin board says
slices and big letters and nothing else.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
It's entirely blank, entirely blank. I'm setting an intention to
do better in twenty twenty six and write down things
as they happen.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
But you know what, Alex, I like that you were
keeping an open mind about the slices. You didn't make
any opinions, you didn't make any decisions. You just stayed
wide open. Speaking of how does one stay open to
changing their mind and what does it mean to change
your mind, we'll get into it.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Next Welcome Back slices.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
So I want to preface this by telling you about
something that happened back in December. I got this message
that frankly made my grinch heart grow three sizes. This
guy on social media messaged me directly and he said, quote, Hey, Sarah,
I know you probably won't see this, but I wanted
to reach out and apologize. I used to be a
fan of barstool, and I remember tweeting at you when
(23:44):
there was an argument between you two. I used to
be young, stupid, and angry, but I've grown up and
I'm really embarrassed about the person I used to be.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I'm really sorry. This message kind of blew my mind.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And you know, as they say in the headlines for
videos of like a fox who's friends with a deer,
or like a kid who gives his friend his ice
cream cone, I would say it restored my faith in humanity. Okay,
that's probably not true. I think that ship has sailed
until we make some pretty wholesale changes on this doomed planet.
But it did feel good, and it did feel novel,
and I did feel hopeful after I got it. It
(24:18):
reminded me that some folks are actually willing to grow
and evolve and learn and take in new information and
change their minds. And this guy went on to say
that he was a big fan of me and my
coverage and the show, and I was kind of shocked
to imagine the ven diagram of the person who was
formerly a big barstool fan and now a big Good
Game fan. And it got me in producer Alex, thinking
about change and what does it take for someone to
(24:40):
change their mind and could a goal for us and
for everyone else in twenty six be the idea of
being willing and open to change. So I was listening
to the Happiness Lab podcast recently and there was a
psychologist on, doctor Diana Hill, and she said that curiosity
and openness is the new mindfulness, in fact, so much
so that a lab at UCSB is literally changing its
name from the Center of my mind fulness to the
(25:00):
Center of Openness.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And it kind of makes sense. I think that was such.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Very clear dividing lines right now in politics and social
issues these days, and the way the Internet sort of
rejects connection and discussion in favor of angry engagement and
sort of digging in our heels on an opinion that
the idea of openness and curiosity could actually be really
really key to all of us right now and in
sort of protecting ourselves from becoming the kind of people
(25:26):
who just dig in and argue on the internet. So
when we reached out to all those friends of the
show to ask them for their twenty twenty five memories
and twenty twenty six intentions, we decided to also ask
them for a time that they changed their mind. Now,
we did not demand depth or profundity. We just asked
for a real life example for their life. So we
got a little bit of lightness and a little bit
of depth. Here are a few of the responses that
(25:47):
we got. First. They are Laville, managing director at the Collective,
which is the women's division of the Wasserman Talent Agency,
and she shared one that I've actually been challenging myself
to stay open to learn about and better understand.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Your mind comes really with the ability and the humility
maybe to say that you might be wrong on something.
And so for me that really centered around in the
past two years, around my views on the Middle East,
which were really shaped by this kind of distance, headlines, noise,
a lot of different actions coming out of the region
as well, but when it came to women and women's sports,
(26:22):
I really wanted to lean in and ensure that my
assumptions weren't things that I was just carrying around, but
really that to dive in and try to understand it,
and so I did. I've explored the region several times,
I've been over many times, I've been to different parts
of the region.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I have really been able to stop kind of.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Defending what I thought I knew and started listening and learning.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it turns out.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
That's where the picture really got clearer for me, and
I was able to be more of a student of
what was happening not only in that region but around
the world for women and women's sports, which was very
interesting and cool to see different regions at different places,
but specific to the Middle East, really I see a
region making like real, intentional and serious bets on women
(27:12):
and women's sports, not just as this kind of symbolic gesture,
but really an investment and infrastructure and regional and ground
youth sports and programs that really come up through different regions,
really looking leaning in to make investment and influence shaped
by women there, from my senior leaders to young girls
(27:35):
getting into the game for the first time, So very
exciting way to change my mind and to feel kind
of surprised by that journey, I guess would be the
word I would use next.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Here's Nicole Hosey, hockey writer for the usc Cho and
the Victory Press.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
A thing that I've changed my mind about is carrying
the reason somebody is at a sporting event, whether they
are interested in the sport, whether they got a free ticket,
whether they just want to take pictures for the Graham, whatever,
the reason is that somebody came through the door is
both irrelevant and none of my business. If they are
at that sporting event, that is an opportunity for me
(28:11):
to make a friend and also to introduce something that
I love. And so I think there used to be
a bit more pitting women against each other or proving that,
you know, I'm not like other girls and I belong here.
It's very early two thousands, having graduated and attempting to
break into sports journalism mindset, you know, being anti pink
hat and all those silly little things. Some of it's
(28:34):
getting older and some of it is just understanding that
like we need as women need to be together and
not fighting with each other. There's enough people that stand
in our way. So I think that's a big thing
that I changed in my mind about was caring what
got somebody into sports or what got them through the door,
and instead just being interested in learning people's story and hopefully,
(28:56):
you know, introducing them to something that I'm so passionate about.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Here's Andrea Yack, co founder of Minnesota Aurora and chair
of the Aurora FC Board.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
A time I changed my mind about something is cheerleaders.
When I was younger, I thought the cheerleaders were just
in it to meet the athletes. And only later, as
I became an adult and started to get to know
the cheerleaders did I realize that they loved the sports
as much as I did, that they worked incredibly hard,
(29:28):
really long days, and that they were every bit as
dedicated to their profession as I was. We were just
supporting sports in a different way.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Next Aaron Foley, comedian, TV writer and the co host
and producer of the podcast Origin Story the eighty five RS.
I love this one.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
So I was doing stand up comedy in New York
City for about five years, and my mind was set
that I was not going to talk about my personal
life because it was too scary and vulnerable, and it
was too it was just too much to even think about.
But then I started watching you know, all my favorites
(30:08):
in New York, and why I love them so much
is because, like they talked about their personal life, and
so I changed my mind and I was like, I've
got to try this because also talking about my personal
life was talking about.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Being gay and dating and all of it.
Speaker 8 (30:28):
So anyway, it changed my mind, and it changed everything
because stand up became so much more fun and such
a better connection with the audience, and yeah, it just, yeah,
it changed everything. But it was very hard to get there.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It was very hard to get there. It's very hard
to change my change my mind. Yeah, about six years
finally Shimmy Miller broadcast in studio Analysts, and she's got
one of the more fascinating sliding doors career stories I've
ever heard. I did not know this about her.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
A time I changed my mind about something, it actually
changed the total trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Little known fact.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I was a police officer right out of college, and
two years into the career, I changed my mind. I
didn't want to do it anymore, and in very dramatic fashion.
I walked into my chief's office and slid my badge
and gun across this desk and said, I changed my mind.
I don't want to do this anymore. I don't like
who I'm becoming. I don't like what I see every day.
(31:28):
It's stealing my joy. I'm out and changing my mind
about being a cop. It changed my whole life because
it drove me back into sports, first as a professional athlete,
then a college basketball coach for twenty five years, and
now as a broadcaster. But everything that I have of
(31:48):
any significance, my friends, my wife, where I live is
because I changed my mind on that day.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So thanks to all of them for sending And I
sort of considered these answers from our friends just a little,
tiny dipped toe into the change waters, a really good start.
But in the future I might force folks to dig
a little deeper for a profound change, like really meaningful
examples of perspective that shifted, Alex, do you have one
of those that you're willing to share about changing your
(32:19):
mind about something?
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah? I changed my mind on abortion. Wow, And like
in some ways, it was like, I guess, a coming
of age type of thing, like because it happened when
I was in college, but I'd say that, like, when
I started college, I was pro life, although I now
hate that term, but yeah, I distinctly remember having a
(32:42):
conversation with a friend of mine in college and being like,
I think people should live with the choices that they make,
and I very much support abortion rights. Now, I still
feel like I have a little bit more of a
gray area than what I think a lot of like
abortion activists portray in that. There was a really fantastic
(33:06):
two part series a couple of years ago from the
More Perfect podcast about like the original Roe v. Wade
decision and how the viability line was initially defined. And
one of the things they discussed though, is how the
term baby has been totally nixed by the pro abortion
movement and yet for a lot of people who experience
(33:27):
pregnancy loss like they have lost their baby, and how
it creates this really tough division where somebody who is
supportive of abortion rights isn't allowed to consider their baby
their baby because they don't want it to be harmful
to the overall goal R and I. And that just
(33:48):
really resonated with me because I'm like, I struggle with
it a little bit still, but like also very much
want people to have access to healthcare.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I feel like language without context and weaponized language is
problematic in so many instances that are similar to that one,
whether it be trans inclusion or other major hot button topics.
Is this idea of turning the intent of something into
something that you can use as a sort of cudgel
instead of the intent behind it. I've been ruminating on
(34:19):
something kind of similar lately, so as someone who has
chosen not to have children, and I'm very happy with
that decision. I really hate when people say start a family,
because I have a family, and I don't think when
you have kids you're starting a family. You could say
growing a family. But I also am not going to
hold it against people who use that terminology. I'm not
(34:39):
like mad at them for that. I just think it
feels limiting to people who can't have kids or choose
not to have them, and the same thing applies to that.
It's like, yes, you can call that thing, even the
idea of that thing your baby. Right Like, let's say
you find out you can't have kids, the idea of
having them can still be baby that you feel like
(35:00):
you lost. But Also I understand how specificity of language
can be used and really damaging in dangerous ways that
prevent rights and access for people. I'm really glad you
offered up one that's pretty serious, because I have two
that are a little bit serious, and I'll I'll just
(35:21):
do them quickly.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
But it sort of makes me cringe and like feel.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Bad that I used to feel differently. But I think
that's the point is you're supposed to be able to
look back and be like, I didn't have enough information
or lived experience, and now I change my mind, and
like that's what we want from people. So one is
I remember in college thinking that like being bisexual was
like made up, I like not really like if someone
I knew was actually telling me about it, I'd be
(35:45):
like okay.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
But I kind of just thought, how do you like everyone?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Don't you have to be like, I'm attracted to men,
So isn't that like you're either attracted to men or women?
Like that's how it is. And then very soon after,
like within five years or so, I remember being like, oh,
I get it. They're just like attracted to a person.
And that's not to say that bisexual people don't care
about the body parts. It's that for me personally, I
was like, don't you have to like one or the other?
(36:11):
Isn't it the natural instinct to be into one set
of body parts or the other set of body parts?
And now I realized that absolutely not, that's not it
at all. But having been very straight and surrounded entirely
pretty much by straight people for my entire life up
until after college, it just didn't really feel accessible to
me to understand the nuances of sexuality in that way.
(36:33):
We weren't having the same conversations because I'm again quite
old back in the day, and there weren't any openly
gay people around me in college, which is pretty wild.
Now my teammates and people I know are now openly gay,
but they weren't in high school or college.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Listen, I'm a little bit younger than you, and that
was true for many of my teammates in college. And
I went to women's college.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, yeah, no, all mices. They should have just been
getting after it.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
But that's so interesting, Sarah, because I also maybe, even
as you're saying this, I realize, like I think I
sometimes maybe still personally struggle a little bit, like I
can understand very much somebody who's bisexual, like as they're dating,
and then I find it interesting, right when they get
married commit like it feels really hard to not then
(37:25):
associate their like quote unquote final destination, like they made
a choice, Like, no, they're still bisexual, They're just in
a relationship. And I think that feels a little bit
like a stuck point in just like my own brain
a little bit. Yeah, to work on that one.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's a good one to work on. I feel like
anyone having been married for almost ten years now, your
final destination doesn't mean that that's the only one you
ever could have ended up with. It just means it's
the best choice or the best choice for now. But yeah,
I h the other one I have is more embarrassing.
But again the results of a very sheltered, sort of
(38:01):
limited life existence. I grew up in a very privileged
area that was predominantly white. Then I went to an
ivy League school that had more diversity but was still
very specific kind of space, and my own opinions of
myself and the decisions I made it kind of sound
a little bit like yours, Like, well, everyone should just
live with their decisions, And I guess that's how it goes.
I was like the kind of person that was like, well,
if you're getting stopped by the police, then you probably
(38:23):
did something wrong. Or if you hate the police, or
if you're afraid of the police, or if you're worried
about the police not helping you, it's probably because you
have a reason to which means like you're a problem,
or you've done something wrong, or you're worried because you
do That is so untrue, and the mountain of evidence
(38:44):
continues to grow with each day. And yeah, I just
I think at the time I was like, well, I
don't do anything illegal, so I don't worry about the police,
and neither should anyone else if they're a good person.
And it's just so privileged. And I remember reading glennam
Doyle's book. She has a chapter in Untamed that's about
the impact of media and what we sort of digest
without even paying attention and knowing that we're being propagandized.
(39:07):
And she speaks specifically to the show Cops.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
And that we all grew up with a show where it.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Was entertainment to watch people, predominantly people of color, be
arrested and made an example of for their choices. And
like with zero context or nuance or understanding of what
was going on, but also being presented to us. And
there's a really great Howard Bryant piece about the role
of media in propagandizing America about police in America and
(39:33):
how many shows lionize police officers and teach us that
they're the saviors and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
And I just paw patrol, even Paw Patrol.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
But yeah, I think part of growing up is recognizing
how many things you've internalized subconsciously as a result of
intention and not accident, and then deciding that you want
to unlearn it and move forward with a different perspective.
And that's how I feel about those things that I
change my mind about. Yeah, we did not give us
(40:04):
a prompt to our friends of the show to be
quite so deep as Alex and I went, but I
think we are really fascinated in how you change your minds,
particularly when there's such a giant percentage of our country
right now that we wish would change their minds.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
But I want to encourage more people to be able
to engage with topics that allow them to take a
stance based in their morals and their ethics. And the
way that they want the world to look, while still
acknowledging that maybe they have some doubts or reservations and
those are fine as well, and that if you don't
(40:40):
allow people to have some grace in seeing things as
more complicated, that it's really, really then hard to convince
somebody to change their opinion on something.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, I think just respecting people's gray areas as potentially
the result of their experiences and perspective as a host
to them being under educated or flat out wrong would
allow for better conversations and discussion than what we do now,
which is to presume that that person knows nothing and
that they're believing something or the other because they've been misinformed.
(41:12):
There's a podcast called You Are Not So Smart, and
the host had an author on who wrote a book
about changing minds, and there was this wild statistic about
like how rare it is for someone to change their
mind because you just give them information like there, if
it's something serious that they've dug their heels in on,
they're less likely to change their mind because you give
(41:33):
them information about how they're wrong, And they're more likely
to change them if you ask them questions about why
they have that opinion, and they talk themselves out of
their own opinion. Why did you vote for that person?
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Like?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
What percentage would you say voted? Oh, seventy five percent?
Oh wow, seventy five percent? Why would you not say
one hundred? Then they start listing the things wrong with
the person they voted for and start to have a
conversation about what's wrong, instead of you yelling at them
for being a moron for making that decision, them getting
defensive and bearing their head in the sand. Anyway, this
(42:04):
is a conversation for another time in full, but I
wanted to bring it up because you and I both
think in this show and in general, having those nuanced
and tough conversations is really important. And giving people grace
for having differing opinions on these things and welcoming them
in instead of calling them out might be more useful
in the future. And so we're going to check back
in with this. I was listening to yet another podcast.
(42:25):
Gretchen Rubin, who's a habit change expert author of The
Happiness Project, was on NPR's Life Kit podcast, and she
suggested marking a dan your calendar in late February is
sort of like your accountability day to see if you've
stuck to your resolutions or your intentions, and then also
marking July second as the halfway point to the year
to check in with yourself again. So I think we'll
take that advice here will mark a point near the
(42:48):
end of February or early March to see how we're
all doing, not just with the intentions that we set
in yesterday's show, but also sort of the idea of
being open to change, changing ourselves if desired, changing our
minds when we get new information or perspective. So if
you have a really memorable change of mind to share,
we would love to hear it and add you to
our sort of accountability that we'll check in with because
(43:09):
we love that you're listing. But you know we always
want to get you in the game every day too,
so that's our good gameplay of the day. Let us
know when you've changed your mind, how did you know
you had gotten something wrong or how did you know
you wanted to feel differently about it? What ended up
tipping the scales for you? We always love to hear
from you. Hit us up on email, good game at
wondermedianetwork dot com, or leave us a voicemail at eight
seven two two o four fifty seventy and don't forget
(43:31):
to subscribe rate and review slices. It's real easy.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Watch a headshot that's more than just a smile.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Rating ten out of ten Heaping Plates of Spaghetti review. Okay, So,
Italian skeleton athlete Alessandro Fumagali has a headshot that pops
up next to her name when she's about to race,
and it's not just the usual smiling, floating head. Alessandra
brought a full plate of spaghetti to the media center
for her photos, and so her headshot shows her holding
(43:59):
a giant played of spaghetti and the other hand lifting
this overflowing fork full of pasta into her mouth like
she's literally eating this giant mouthful of spaghetti in her photo,
which absolute legend. And in his headshot, her Italian teammate
Mattia Gaspari is sipping an espresso like the most Italian
things ever, no notes the Italians win. I'm going to
(44:20):
link to a behind the scenes video of Alessandra shooting
that headshot and bringing the spaghetti to the green screen.
It's so good. Also got a shout out Ken Childs
of sliding on ice dot Com for sharing those headshots
he was covering the event where they popped up, and
his sight sliding on ice dot com and Ken himself.
They're just must follows if you're into the sliding sports.
He's at the Kenchild's dot com on Blue Sky. We'll
(44:42):
link to both of those in the show notes. All right,
now it's your turn slices, rate and review. Thanks for listening,
See you tomorrow. Good game, housing spaghetti in your headshot,
Good game being open to admitting when you've gotten something wrong.
You to the people who claim they've never been wrong
about anything ever. Big Red Flag Good Game with Sarah
(45:06):
Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie Grace, Lynch,
Taylor Williamson and Lucy Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer. Our editors are
(45:28):
Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from
Avery LOFTUS and I'm your host, Sarah Spain.
Host
Sarah Spain
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