Not Now Sweetie, Mommy’s Working The Buzzer with Mina Kimes

Mina Kimes, ESPN NFL analyst, Celebrity Jeopardy! star and the new host of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, joins Sarah to talk about how the Bee will look different this year, what she’s spending the most time researching ahead of her first time hosting, being a cool nerd, and accessing parts of her brain she hasn’t used in awhile. Plus, setting the Tempo, a hot new bronze-shell has entered the villa, and revenge is best served on ice.

• The WNBA schedule is here

• The NWSL schedule can be found here

• The full college softball bracket is here

• The Scripps National Spelling Bee website is here 

• Follow Macey Isaacs on Instagram here

• And follow Josh Gondelman on Instagram here

• Play the Operation Epic Fury: Strait to Hell arcade game here

• You can now WATCH Sarah’s interviews! Subscribe to @iHeartWomensSports on YouTube and check out the Good Game playlist here

• Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at [e-mail] 

• Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323

• Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social Instagram: @AzziArtwork 

• Follow producer Bianca Hillier!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're taking
advantage of what could be a very brief moment in
time to shout from the rooftops the two and oh
Chicago sky or at the top of the WNBA standings.
We're just gonna savor this moment, you know, let it breathe.
It's Friday, May fifteenth, and on today's show ESPN, NFL

(00:22):
analyst and podcast host, celebrity Jeopardy star and the new
host of The Scripts National Spelling Beat, Mina Kimes joins us.
We talk about how the Bee will look different this year,
what she's spending the most time researching ahead of her
first time hosting, being a cool nerd, and accessing parts
of her brain she hasn't used in a while. Plus
setting the tempo, a hot new bronze shell has entered

(00:44):
the villa, and revenge is best served on ice.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's all coming up right after this backslices.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Here's what you need to know today, Starting with hoops,
the expansion Toronto Tempo earned their first win as a
franchise Wednesday night, defeating the Seattle Storm eighty six seventy three.
Marina Maybury led the Tempo with twenty six points, including
six mad threes, and Britney Sykes had eighteen points eight boards.
On the night after the win, players celebrated by drenching

(01:22):
head coach and friend of the show Sandy Brondello.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
With a bit of water in the locker room.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Maybury at least handed her a towel, perhaps her most
important assist of the night. Also on Wednesday, the Chicago
Sky took down the Golden State Valkyrie sixty nine to
sixty three, keeping my home team undefeated so.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Far this season.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
The Sky's Rakia Jackson led the way with eighteen points,
and recent UCLA grad Gabriella Hakez had seven points and
five rebounds to continue her strong rookie start out. In
Los Angeles, the Indiana Fever beat the La Sparks eighty
seven to seventy eight behind twenty four points and nine
assists from Caitlin Clark and twenty three points from Kelsey Mitchell.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Kelsey Plum solid.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Again in a losing effort, putting up twenty five for
the Sparks, who are still looking for their first win
at the season. Speaking of winless teams, out at Mohegan
Sun Arena, the Connecticut Sun got trounced by the Las
Vegas Aces ninety eight sixty nine, with Kennedy Carter scoring
twenty seven points in that one.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
For the Aces that bet is paying off so.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Far, four time MVP Asia Wilson put up twenty two
points and eleven boards in just twenty one minutes.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Y'all be vegan for real.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Son still looking for their first dub in this quote
unquote Sunset season in Connecticut, speaking of the league, officially
announced on Wednesday that the WNBA and NBA Board of
Governors unanimously approved the sale of the sun and the
team's relocation to Houston ahead of next season. Tilman Fertida,
owner of the mnba's Houston Rockets, paid a record three
hundred million dollars for the franchise, though it's worth remembering

(02:53):
that the Mohegan Tribe also reportedly received two offers valued
at three hundred and twenty five million, including one from
Celtics mind already owner Steve Paliuca, who wanted to move
the team to Boston. The league effectively blocked that deal
from proceeding, arguing that cities that expressed interest in the
expansion process should get priority, so Houston it is now.

(03:13):
We've known about this move for a long time, but
now it's officially official. More WNBA. We're recording today's episode
before two WNBA games on Thursday night and another weekend
packed with action, including four games tonight. First up, the
reigning league champs, the Aces, are staying on the East
Coast for another game against the Connecticut Sun that's a
seven thirty pm Eastern tip off.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Also at seven.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Thirty Eastern, the Washington Mystics tip off against the Indiana
Fever at Gainbridge Field House in Indianapolis. Later tonight, the
Toronto Tempo faced the La Sparks at ten pm Eastern,
and the Chicago Sky try to make it three and
zero as they take on the Phoenix Mercury also at
ten Eastern. Also this weekend, the WNBA will make its
long awaited return to NBC with the game between the

(03:56):
Las Vegas Aces and Atlanta Dream on Sunday at one
thirty pm Eastern. NBC was the WNBA's first ever broadcast partner,
and the network still boasts the record for the most
watched game in league history, with more than five million
viewers tuning in to watch the first ever w game,
Liberty versus Sparks back on June twenty first, nineteen ninety seven.

(04:16):
There are also three other games on Sunday to check out.
We'll put the full schedule in the show notes. Speaking
of WNBA viewership, last weekend showdown between the Indiana Fever
and the Dallas Wings brought in a huge number, with
two and a half million viewers tuning in to watch
the last four number one draft picks take the court,
making it the second most watched WNBA regular season game
on ABC or ESPN. One more piece of w news,

(04:40):
and it's a big one. The La Sparks announced on
Thursday they're honoring franchise icon, four time Olympic Gold medalist
and Naysmith Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie with a statue
in the Star Plaza outside their home arena Crypto dot com.
Leslie is a women's basketball pioneer, one of the faces
of the league since it tipped off in nineteen ninety seven.
In her twelve seasons in the league, all of them

(05:01):
with the Sparks, she won two titles and earned league
MVP honors three times. Was a twelve time All WNBA selection,
eight time All Star, two time Finals MVP, two time
Defensive Player of the Year and three time All Star MVP.
She remains the Sparks all time franchise leader in points, rebounds, blocks,
field goals, free throws, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, defensive wind shares,

(05:22):
minutes and games who Her number nine jersey was retired
by the Sparks back in twenty ten, and now she'll
become just the second WNBA player in league history to
receive a statue from her respective organization, joining Sue Byrd. Though,
of course, Asia Wilson has an iconic statue at her
alma mater, South Carolina, and we can't forget the many

(05:42):
Caitlin Clark Butter statues at every Iowa State Fair. The
Star Plaza where Leslie's statue is going is already home
to over a dozen other celebrated athletes that Leslie is
said to become the first women's sports star to join
the party.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
About damn time to hockey.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Recording this ahead of Game one of the PWHL Finals
between the number one Montreal Victoire and number four Ottawa
Charge on Thursday night at plas Bell Arena just outside Montreal.
The best of five series will continue Saturday, with Game two,
also at plas Bell, with Game three scheduled for Monday
in Ottawa. This series is an opportunity for revenge for Montreal.
Last season, they were ousted by Ottawa in the semi finals. Meantime,

(06:23):
Ottawa came tantalizingly close to hoisting the Cup last year,
taking the Minnesota Frost to overtime in all four games
of last year's Cup finals. Don't forget US fans can
watch on Ion and YouTube, while Maple Bacon slices up
north can catch the games on TSN and RDS to
the nwsl where this weekend Slate kicks off tonight with

(06:44):
four matches.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Jose the Coyote and the number one.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Washington Spirit will try to stay hot when they visit
the number three San Diego Wave. The Spirit currently boasts
a five game win streak and an eight game unbeaten streak,
the longest active unbeaten streak in the league. Meanwhile, have
won three of their last five. That's a ten pm
Eastern kickoff out West. Kick it off a little earlier
are at the Kansas City Current and the Houston Dash

(07:09):
an eight pm Eastern start. If Kansas City Current captain
Low labont To plays eighty one minutes in this match,
she would hit fifteen thousand minutes played in her career,
becoming just the twentieth member of.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
The fifteen k club.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Also, if Case wins that game, midfielder Debinia will become
just the third NWSL player to reach one hundred career
regular season wins, joining the Seattle Rains, Jeff Fishlock and
the now retired Lauren Barnes. Shout out to friend of
the show Jen Cooper for that fun fact oh and
another fun Cooper provided factoid. Tonight's matchup between BFC and
Boston Legacy at ten pm Eastern will mark the first

(07:44):
time pro women's soccer teams from the Bay Area and
Boston have gone head to head since back in twenty
ten during the days of the WPS. In that game, Marta,
then with FC gold Pride, scored the game winner against Alissennair,
who was in goal for Boston. Speaking of Nayor, the
Chicago Stars keeper has already made the most regular season
appearances of any goalkeeper in NWSL history, but she could

(08:06):
move up the all time player list if she plays
in the Stars match against the Courage on Saturday. Nair's
next regular season appearance will be her two hundred and eighteenth,
breaking a tie with McCalls or Boni for the fourth
most games played in the regular season, two behind Seattle's
Jess Fishlock for third all time and four behind Houston
Stanny Colaprico for second. The Stars contest is one of
two games on Saturday. There are two more on Sunday.

(08:28):
We'll link to the NWSL schedule in the show notes
so you could try to catch all the history that
could be made this weekend to college softball. A reminder
that the NCAA Regional Tournaments are this weekend, beginning with
games this afternoon at the sixteen regional sites. Four teams
compete at each site in a double elimination bracket, with
the winner at the end of the weekend earning a
spot at next week Super Regionals and a shot at

(08:51):
making the College World Series later this month. We'll link
to the complete college softball bracket and schedule in the
show notes. We're going to take a break. When we
come back, how do you spell success? We'll ask Mina chimes.
I got up with her on Wednesday ahead of the
finale of Celebrity Jeopardy All Stars airing tonight, joining us

(09:19):
Now she's the newly named host of the Script's National
Spelling Beat, an NFL analyst for ESPN, regular on NFL Live,
and host of the Menachimes show featuring Lenny, her dog.
An Air Force brat, she bounced around as a youth,
graduated Summa cum Laudie from Yale and started as an
investigative reporter before pivoting to sports. She's a regular host
of pop culture pods, a celebrity Jeopardy contestant, a Great

(09:40):
American Baking Show participant, a color commentator, one of my
favorites to play with on TV on Around the Horn,
Highly Questionable, and other shows that have since been canceled.
Mom to two boys, a chunky human and a good dog.
She's got a Super Bowl forty eight tattoo in honor
for beloved Seahawks.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
It's Mina Chimes, Hi Mina Hi Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
That might be the best intro I've ever gotten. Thank you,
it's up there.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Your boy is not as chunky as he used to be,
but I think he still counts as chunky.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
He's slimming it out a little bit, to the disappointment
of the rest of my NFL Live gang. Marcus Spears
was really hoping he'd be chunky forever. But he's still
kind of weirdly large. You've never met him, he is
oddly large. You have met my husband, and you know
we're not large people.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, there's a little suspicion, but we'll let him grow
up a little bit.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
No, I was an incredibly fat baby, oh okay, which
I have since learned is predictive. If the mom is
a big baby, the baby's likely to be a big baby.
So unfortunately, he's probably doomed to my trajectory.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
We don't have to looking for the milkman. We just
have to wait a little while and he'll wait out. Yeah,
he'll be deceptively tall like his mom before we get
to the spelling bee. I'm fresh off watching you on
Celebrity Jeopardy, and my nerves for you are legitimate as
a competitive person and as someone who knows how nervous

(11:00):
I would feel doing Celebrity Jeopardy, which they've never asked.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
But you know I'm here.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Guys, you advanced, You won your semi final round against
friend Katie Nolan and against one of my faves from
Abbot Elementary. I just want to ask, being a seasoned
pro on the show. According to jeopardyfan dot com, you
have gotten the answers right and impressive eighty six percent
of the time. Are you as nervous on the show
as I presume you are, or do you actually settle

(11:26):
in once you get going.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
I was extremely nervous in the game you just saw,
which is the semi final. I was not super prepared
outside of preparing for wagering strategy, which ultimately came to
play the end. But it was like during the football season.
I was just I didn't I don't know I had
done it before, and I was nervous at time, and
I was nervous again this time, and I thought I
played a horrible game. It was very hard for me

(11:49):
to watch, you know me, I was like dying watching them.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
I love every time you don't know an answer that
I know because it's the smartest I ever feel.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Uh put a pin in that when we talk about
the spelling being good, but we're watching talk about twelve
year old kids. However, I don't think this is State secrets.
There was a two month gap between the semi final
and the finals, and Sarah I spent those two months studying,
so by the time the final came around, I was

(12:17):
actually not significantly less nervous because I felt infinitely more prepared,
which is kind of how I am generally in life,
Like if I feel prepared, I feel great, and if
I feel unprepared, I feel terrible. And that's how I
felt in the semifinal.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
One thousand percent the same.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
People always like, do you get nervous?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
I'm like, not anymore, because now I know that I
have to be prepared and then I can save myself
the torture of being like, oh my god, I don't
know enough about this to be on television.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
I'm not really sure how you prepare for Jeopardy.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I know you figure out the wagers, you figure out
your daily double strategy for you do you just scan
topics that you think you're bad at and might come up.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I'm actually going to do a podcast on this oh
night that will come out next week for those who
don't know, I host a TV entertainment podcast with David
Denis Junior called View of Discretion. We're going to talk
about all of my studying in depth. But one thing
I really focused on studying, I'll tell you right now,
was buzzing because Jeopardy, and everyone who competes on the
show will tell you this is so much about the

(13:15):
buzzer and getting better at your reaction time and knowing
when to buzz in and becoming like a metronome, and
it is something you can practice getting better at.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh my gosh, I just love picturing you at home,
not now, sweetie, Mommy's work at the buzzer.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
You have no idea.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Is there a particular Jeopardy question that you got wrong
that haunts you?

Speaker 3 (13:36):
The freaking final one, which was very easy, but like
when you're up, it was for those who don't know,
it was like this AI assistant. It's named after the
world's oldest library. It's Alexa, it's Alexander. I know Alexandria
is the world's old library, but in my mind something
about Virtual Assistant I was like Claude perplexity. I was
trying to think about all I and not the hardware.

(13:56):
And I think that happens a lot in Jeopardy, where
you forget to read the whole clue, and like the
right way to play is like you got to focus
on different parts of the clue and try it. And
I gets something. I also got better at but you
lock in on one thing and then sometimes that can
prevent you from taking a step back and seeing the
whole picture and getting it right. But I felt like
a moron at home watching it games.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, well, we love watching you on Celebrity Jeopardy. We're
so excited to watch the Spelling Bee, and we're just
excited because it's a great loophole to have you on
the show. We had you on briefly during Super Bowl
Radio Row a couple of years ago, and that was
you know, we were really trying to find a way
to figure out how your coverage of the NFL intersected
with women's sports, just so we could chat with you.

(14:39):
And here we have the Spelling Bee, where you know,
girls will compete in something very much sports adjacent.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Girls win a lot. Yeah and yeah, so this is
definitely a female sport. One hundred percent believe this is
not a loophole.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
This is so tell me how the new gig came about.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
The spelling Be's obviously enough forever right now it's on ion.
But this year there's a change, which is the company
that actually produces Jeopardy, Embassy Row, is now producing the
Spelling Bee for the first time, and so I got
to know them through the Jeopardy process, Michael Davies, who's great,
and you know, I think in that process they learned
a little bit about me. May have competed in bees

(15:18):
growing up, both spelling and geography. And so when this
opportunity came up, Michael reached out to me and asked
if something I'd be interested in doing. And I'm co
hosting it with Paul Leffler, who's been doing the Bee
for years, who is has won and it competed himself
and is unbelievably knowledgeable about this. And the role we're

(15:38):
kind of doing is I'm almost like play by play
and he's color is how I would characterize it, where
I'm kind of am seeing we've been along introducing kids,
setting people up, but he is going to be there
to give people the information. And that's what I'm the
most excited about. Because as I've learned more about the
Spelling Bee and I've started studying and learning more about
the process, I think there's some misconceptions these kids are

(16:00):
just memorizing words. They're not. I mean they are, but
they're each word is like a puzzle that they're solving
with root words and you know, parts of speech and
origins and all that. So I think him being there
to give that information and analyze the process is gonna
be really cool.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
I'm actually like obsessed with etymology. I think it's so fascinating.
So I would also be nerding out if he explained
why we're like when the kids are asking those follow ups,
it's not because they're killing time trying to like drag
out the response. It's they're learning from those answers. What's
more likely to be, like, you know, if there's silent
letters in there, or is it going to be an
effor a pH? Like all that is based on like

(16:37):
the root language that's coming from.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
There's a moment where like when you're watching and I've
watched it a lot now, when a kid will say,
does this come from like you know, the Greek root whatever,
And when the pronouncer or his assistant pronouncer says, you're
on the right track, you can see like the light
flicker on in the kid's eyes and they're like, oh,
I here's just like I know, I know this word,
I know how to do it. They might not even
know the words, but they know how to solve it.

(17:02):
Because of that puzzling process, which I think is just
so cool. It's like, it's so cool interesting. And someone
asked me the other day, well, like, why do we
even know how needs to know how to spell anymore?

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Right?

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Because you have spell check and AI and if you
watch the be you understand this isn't about spelling. It's
about deduction. And I think that's what's so cool.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
About it, right, Understanding language.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I mean I use my understanding of like root words
and different languages all the time to be able to
read something in another language that I don't know. But
I'm like, oh, in French, I know this, and so
it's probably related to this. Or there's a lot of
languages where this word means this, so it's probably something
around here. And it just opens up, you know, your
understanding of like how words work and how language works

(17:44):
in a way that's still necessary.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Oh, I'm so sick of hearing people say it, like
why do we still need to read?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Or just can you just summarize that six sentence email
for me? It's too long. No, I'm inter gonna go
ahead and read all six sentences.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's oh so upciting. There's also a vocabulary by the way,
which I thought this was alluding to earlier, when I
was like, you're talking about feeling superior, though that's the
only rounds in which I'm like, I know most of
these and I don't feel superior because their children. I
actually feel devastated whenever anyone gets anything wrong. But it
is I think important to emphasize because these kids, they
know what most of these words mean.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, and the vocabulary round highlights that.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
You mentioned Michael Davies of Embassy Row. He produces Jeopardy.
He's one half of the men in Blazer's Crew. For
those who don't know, he does a bunch of stuff.
I actually met him when I was interviewing for the
Regius Sports show that helped launch FS One. Got offered
the gig and turned it down because I didn't want
to move to New York. I was tempted. I thought
about it, but I was like, I can't. I can't
go to New York. But have been following him and

(18:43):
all the things he gets involved in have this element
of just intellect and cleverness to it, which I really appreciate,
and so I'm excited to see what that means for this.
So tell me, why you think it will look different
this year based on Michael and Embassy Row taking over.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
This is like the Super Bowl for kids. I grew
up idolizing these kids like we would watch it home
and I just thought this in the geography Bee, which
was a big thing in my house. I thought these
these were like the coolest kids on earth, and they
were Jordan in my household, the ones who want so
I think, you know, our goal is to give it
like a big game feel. And when I say that,

(19:22):
you know some of that comes in the production of
like making people understand. My goal is to not only
help people understand how skillful these kids are, right, but
also get them invested in each of them and their journeys.
I think one of the things not to veer between
sporting events and analogies here, but the Olympics does so
well is and you know this stuff from carme so well.

(19:43):
You turn on the Olympics and ten minutes ago you
had never heard of this Bob's letter from Czechoslovakia or something,
and then they tell you a five minute story and
you're like, I will die for this Bob Sli from Czechoslovakia.
It happened, and I kind of want to find ways
to do that with the spellingy because I just think
most of these people watching don't know who you know

(20:04):
these kids are, but they should and I think it's
our goal to make them care and get invested in
their journeys and live and die by their successes the
way we do when we watch the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, I mean, if you sportify it, we all know
how easy it is to be like this kid's a
Seattle Seahawks fan. He loves the band Pavement and he
has five rescue dogs. I mean, is like, Okay, well
that's my kid. I'm gonna be rooting for him for
the rest of the time. Like you just need something
to pull from there from your hometown. They love your
favorite team, whatever it is, and you give that little

(20:35):
bit and people are invested in a different way as
opposed to just oh, here's the one I recognize from
last round.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
So that's really fun to sort of sportify it.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Will they be running out to any sort of like
fireworks or like big blasts.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Of steam like we do out of the tunnel.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
That I don't think they're gonna do. Some of the kids, though,
have like major swagged the kid who won last year
was super swaggy. And this is the other thing I've
learned about the semib I've gotten dossiers on like the contenders.
Sometimes kids can come out of nowhere and surprise you.
Happens all the time. But because a lot of these

(21:12):
kids have been competing for a while, and then there's
regional bees, the people who run the National Spelling Script
National Spelling Bee do kind of have an idea of
who the contenders are in fact watching. When I opened
my dossias, I was like, oh, I recognize that name.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
That name.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
That name like Esha from Arizona made it to the
top ten last year. She is one to watch, a
lady to watch. Yes, she's awesome. This kid Starve who
came in third even though he was like eleven last year.
So I think, you know, that's something that's also kind
of cool about it is there are familiar faces year

(21:46):
after year and you can kind of see them grow
in confidence.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
I imagine your personal history with Spelling Bees involves a
lot of winning.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
What about a word you lost on that you still remember?

Speaker 3 (21:58):
I actually don't remember my lose words. I have a
weird thing where I have a real inability to remember
information from before I was fifteen.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Okay, so very specific. Age?

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Is that odd?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Like I, I just like puberty hit and you were
just like I think it's because I don't know.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Probably it's probably because I've filled my brain with all
kinds of dumb football stuff and crowded out all the
useful information, right, but which is really start during Jeopardy.
But yeah, I don't know. I moved around a lot.
I think that's part of it too. So again, all
these kids remembered, They're losing words at literally every bee
that they've and maybe that's what separates the greats from
the merely the wanna bees. Like me, I did remember,

(22:42):
though my parents helped me remember. I won the second
grade city B with it. It was an easy word,
but I was the second grader. Receive was the work
that I spoke directly, which you know, the infamous eye
before E except after see came into play there. But
the thing I remembered more than the words, and I
did remember vaguely from that second grade B was getting

(23:03):
the trophy, which was bigger than me, so I was
trying to hold it outside of the school. But that
one I did.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Remember that's amazing. Any recent spelling bees for charity or.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Something I have not, I'm open to doing it, although
I feel like I would get embarrassed.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
I did it a couple of years ago and I
of course won, so that felt great, and I feel
like the pressure is still there as.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
An adult where any of the words hard.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, there were some tough ones.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Actually, yeah, they weren't the kind you'd say on the
spelling bee, but they were the kind that you just
haven't really noticed you've been spelling weird. Yeah, and it's
been probably getting fixed for you that you oh, yeah
know what I mean, You never notice anymore because when
you just type it, it just fixed a little.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
I can't remember one of them specifically, but yeah, I
had absolutely no chill. I was like parading around the
stage with the trophy for this charity event and.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I met no one who's one has ever done that.
But that's how I operate.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Listen, Yeah, celebrate the wins.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Winning anything, celebrate it. You never know when you're getting
your last win. I'm wondering how your expertise analyzing football
is helping you prep for this gig, Like, where do
you find the intersections between the research you do for
NFL Live and the research you're doing for this.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
I think I'm where I feel it creeping in already
as I'm watching these past b's and thinking about what
kind of content we should do, like in between the
grounds and to set them up. Is when I think
about football and the way I like to cover it
and the way I enjoy other people's coverage, I always
want to hear the how. I don't want to be told, wow,
you know Patrick Mahomes was awesome. Tell me how he

(24:42):
was awesome. Tell me why he did something different from
the other quarterbacks. And when I'm watching the piece, I
feel the same way watching these kids, Like I know
they're smart, I know they're amazing, but tell me how,
tell me why? Like I really want to find ways it.
Paul is really who's gonna be doing the book of
this to explain to folks how these kids are puzzling
out these words, what makes some of these words so

(25:04):
uniquely challenging? And I think that's that's definitely a goal
of mine in this whole project, is to get the
how to come to the forefront.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
What are you going to study the most ahead of
the broadcast?

Speaker 3 (25:15):
The pronunciations of the kids' names. Yeah, I had a
feeling I'm gonna study which is a football you know,
like we I do in the draft too, right, Like
I try to get pronouncers like I come up with
little mnemonic devices like So this year, Venga Yuana was
the guard at a Penn State that the Ravens took
and the way I remembered it was, uh, Venga Yuana,

(25:38):
you want to draft him? So when it came up,
I was like, Yoana, I was like, I remember that.
So I try to call little little devices like that
to remember the names.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
I can't remember if I've told this story on the pod,
but I was hosting the tenth anniversary of the Global
Sports Mentoring Program between espnW and the US State Department
in Washington, d C. With Jill Biden and Billy Jean
King and all these luminaries there. And it was during
US coming out of COVID, so that morning we'd all

(26:08):
had to take COVID test. The teleprompter person tested positive
and they replaced them with someone last minute that they
said had done it before but had not, And I
had to introduce thirty of the previous members of the
Global Sports mentoring program from China, India, all these places,
and the last second, Rachel Epstein, my espnW hero, was like,
just bring the cards up just in case, and I

(26:30):
was like, well, the teleprompter I just bring So the
teleprompter just stops in the middle of talking and I'm like,
and also Ted lewons this is here.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Hi did, and I'm looking around like shuffle shuffle, shuffle shuffle.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
And thank god my cards had every single pronunciation laid
out exactly as I need it, because that's the most terrifying.
Is like yeah, And my tip from that is and
ever since then, I've started not looking at them anymore.
I just say them so many times that when my
brain arrived upon them, it just does the thing. It's

(27:03):
like if I try to look at Yana sents to
combo and say it by reading it, I screw it up.
But now I just say it because it's in my head.
So maybe just say them over and over and over
again without even looking, so that when it arrives your
brain doesn't do any work.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
It's like brushing your teeth.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
I think that helps a lot. I always like like
zero in on like one syllable, like okay, just if
I can nail this one syllable, I can nail everything
else that the most maybe like tricky one. But yeah,
like I think saying them is really helpful and it's
really important, right like this is these are these kids
shining moments. I don't want to ruin them by miss

(27:40):
browsing their names.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
I think that can suck.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
So it's a lot of pressure. I want to get
that presure.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
And also if they, you know, go viral and then
they have to tell everyone it's actually this like oh
Tom Tibberdeu slash Thibadeau or Kiki eerieoff In slash ere
of Fen, it's like once everyone gets it one way,
it's a battle going back.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, yeah, I've had that. That happened to me a
few times early in my career.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Minichyns Mina Keames.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
I was a kid who didn't correct people when they
said my name wrong growing up.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
So I can imagine you when you're so you can
call me whatever, it's no big deal, it's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Do you think your experience on Celebrity Jeopardy and how
that is probably the closest you've come to doing a
spelling bee type contest makes you a better Spelling Bee
co host, like more specific kind of empathy for the contestants.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Well, I did might get to the finals of the
Virginia State Geography Beest.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
So oh, I'm so sorry. Sorry, I didn't realize there
were millions watching.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
I think that. I think honestly, being a mom probably
do like is going to factor in a little bit
and being around children a bit more than I used
to be, even though these kids are a lot older
and my kid is pretty far away from spelling anything.
But he spelled his own name actually, which is very funny.
He loves spelling it and if he sees it, he

(28:57):
gets super excited. But yeah, I think the other thing
is like just doing live TV every day, you know,
which is as you know, like when you're when you
do stuff live, like you just kind of if you
make a mistake, you just got to keep it moving.
And I think that's something that is going to play
into this too, because it's not going to be I mean,
the semi finals are four hours long, Sarah, so it

(29:20):
take for a long time that Yeah, you can watch
it on spellingb dot com the four hour version. The
two hour version is on Ion later that night, but
I do think just the comfort of doing that for
so long will help.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
In the press release announcing you as host, the executive
director of The Spelling Bee said, Mina shows over and
over how cool it is to be smart, making her
a natural fit for the Bee, which I love so
much because it feels awesome to get to show kids
that being smart as cool, like and I think you
do that so well, Like that's that's that's an I
love that quote about you. I'm wondering if you were

(29:53):
ever uncool, because I know everyone likes to say that
they were, but it's always like, I don't know, like
somebody who's a supermodel, being like people made fun of
me so much for being too skinny, and I'm like, yeah,
I'm sure it was terrible.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Like were you ever actually uncool?

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Junior high?

Speaker 4 (30:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (30:12):
I was, you know, Uh, Elementary school was fine because
being smart was cool. Junior high the tide really turned.
And then in high school I think I started making
it come back. I played soccer that help, Okay, I had,
I started making it, but something that was too from
just moving around a lot, because like when I went
to junior high and know anyone.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, it's also like that weird.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, the thing, the like transition period is a lot
harder on some people than others.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Do you ever see the show pen fifteen? Yeah, I
looked like the girl in ten fifteen with the braces
and the bowl cut, and yeah it's not my fineste.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, I had all the things at once. It was like,
not bad sets, but I had a couple of sets.
I had braces, I had frizzy hair, and I was
already like six feet tall when everyone else was still
five to two. So just just awkward galore. I did
not go on to be named sexiest woman at my
college like you were at Yale, unfortunately. So I'm still
working my way out of the uncool allegations. But you

(31:09):
have clearly thrived since you dry. You know, you break
a lot of ground in what you do as a woman,
as an Asian woman without playing professional football. You're analyzing
the NFL alongside these former players, and I wonder if
at any point you had imposter syndrome or questioned if
you belonged, or did you always know the work you
put in was enough?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Oh all the time.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
I mean I still do, but I think it has
it declined a bit early in my career definitely was
the criticism used to hit me a lot harder. And
I think it hit me harder because of what you're saying,
which is it reflected how I felt about myself, right,
And that's the way online criticism works, or it is

(31:52):
almost exclusive be online. Is like it hurts when you
believe it. Yeah, you're right, you know what I mean,
Like when part of you, like the little like gremlin
in side of you is like they have a point,
Whereas when you see something you're like, you know it's
not true, even if it sucks, it doesn't really affect
you in the same way. And that's why I feel
about a lot of stuff I see now, I'm just like, yeah,
but yeah. Earlier in my career definitely, And I think

(32:14):
just working with these guys for so long was such
a big factor in building my confidence because I think
they're the best analysts on Earth on NFL Live, and
the fact that they believe in me has helped me
believe in myself.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
And you got some great ones.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
I just love Ryan Clark, Marcus just great, and obviously
to work with Laura just the best.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
I've heard some horror stories from women in the biz
mostly other places, not ESPN, but the dire hair, lose weight,
change your voice, change your look, change your approach. Did
you have anyone try to change you when you made
the pivot to full time NFL?

Speaker 3 (32:49):
You know, not really. It's funny because I've heard a
lot of these stories too and seen some of them
play out. And I think because I have such a
unique role, candidly, just like not being a host, I
think I get it less than women who are on
the sidelines are hosting, just because I don't know why.

(33:10):
It's it's super up, but I do think it's sort
of made some of those people who might have those
types of opinions kind of like a little bit less
likely to which is in itself something interesting and probably
worth unpacking. But yeah, it is weird, Like I, you
and I have talked about this, Like I the whole

(33:32):
physical aspect of being on TV and being on camera
personality was so new to me and really didn't start
until I was in my thirties that I didn't really
know how much to invest in it myself. And and
that's why early in my career I would just let
make up people do insane things to me. Huh, Like
full on Smoky eyn Street.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, just like always look like a fifty year old
realtor from New Jersey until I finally was like, I
don't think I want that you.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Have any look that you really regret from.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Oh my god, yes one of my ones, and it
pops up every once in a while, and I had to
tell them like, hey, can you like mark this so
that no one grabs it by mistake thinking it's like
one of the options. And then I know you have
your like appearance from when you're still doing like finance reporting, where.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You look super God.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
I have the ones from like the very first couple
appearances on like Oberman and Outside the Lines where it's
like I look like me, but like, only by looking
at that can you realize that I've paid for a
bunch of fake hair and fake eye you.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Like the glow up is so clear that I was like, Okay,
I'm on TV now and I got to pay for
a bunch of stuff to look like someone I'm not.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
It's crazy. You actually have to we talk all the time.
I like, Yeah, you learn how as a woman in
rang shape, you learn how to advocate for yourself to
producers and to talent. You also kind of have to
learn how to advocate for yourself in there and make covering.
No one talks about that. Like I it took me
forevery a walk and to be like, hey, here are
the things I like. Here are the things I don't like,
Like probably like two years before I see doing that.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Oh my god, me longer, because I like have made
it a principle of mine to be low maintenance. The
problem is is if you're like too low maintenance, then
you're like, well, I probably should have said, like I
just went on to be looking insane because I just
didn't want to be a.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Diva, but totally yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, I mean it's I think also to your point
about the hosts, when you're one of the only in something,
sometimes there's no comparison to be made, so they just
let you. Like I found that Jamal Hill is always
a great role model for me because she didn't feel
like she had to completely change her look and who
she was, and especially when we would go to like
the SP's, she'd change into a T shirt and sneakers

(35:41):
and be going to the parties and walking around and
not worrying about having to uphold this idea and I
think for women who are opinionists, there's a little bit
less of that you have to be exactly this because
there's just so few that they let us be whatever
we wanted, and they would actually tell me to bring
out more of my personality and my sense of humor
and all that stuff and not try to be too report,
whereas I think the hosts they're like, you basically have

(36:03):
to be a super babe in the perfect outfit, with
the perfect body, with the perfect hair, with the perfect everything,
because it's a different idea of who that is, which
to your point is super top.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah it is. And I in fact though, like I
probably got more comfortable with like enjoying clothes and yeah,
like later in my career, but I wanted to do
it on my own terms. And yeah, I've never to
this day heard anything about my appearance from not Not
not like my looks are time, like the way I
dress or do from coxecutives or anything like that, which

(36:39):
I think is kind of unusual.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
Yeah that's great, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
I think also, like you mentioned, you're so different that
you don't really fit into the stereotypes that women who
break through tend to fit into. But you're also not
a big giant football man. I remember once on Levatar
show we used to do all of Dan Levittard's many shows,
I called you the word diminutive, which people thought was critical,
but what I meant was like, most women who break

(37:03):
through have to be loud, sort of brash, sort of
if they're not the very beautiful host type, like the
opinion givers have this energy, and you just are so chill,
sometimes even giggly, And that laid back confidence is another
thing that I think makes you so likable and people
appreciate it so much in the work you do. But

(37:25):
that's terrifying to just be like, yeah, yeah, I'm just
like so chill over here being an Asian woman talking
about the NFL that I never played in, but you
do it, Like where do you find that confidence?

Speaker 3 (37:35):
One thing that clicked for me with first Take in particular,
which is a show I do sometimes during the football season.
I do it regularly in football season, is the first
when I first started doing it, I was like, Okay,
I gotta raise my voice because producers we get in
my ear and be like, you're not talking enough. But
when I realized that was I think that before I
did them too. First, take the first Sports Nation. Some
of the shows I did early on, producers would say like, Hey,

(37:57):
you have really great information, but I can tell you're
like tentative to jump in. And one thing I realized was,
like there was I figured out how to like assert
myself without raising my voice or pretending to be an
extra outsized version of myself, but like, weirdly just staying
calm and keeping my voice level but making the like

(38:21):
taking up my time and also using it to crush
whatever I was debating with. But if I did it
in my normal neutral voice, people started responding to that.
I was like, okay, Like so, actually, I don't have
to be like a fake loud version of me. I
just have to be confident in what I'm saying. And
that kind of took some time to things do well.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
And if the other person is extra big, then you
having the correct facts or making a great point in
opposition to that while being super chill just hits way
better than both of you yelling you know, I gotta
let you go, but I want to ask you. You know,
you've proved yourself so much in the sports world and
specifically the NFL this point, do you have any nerves
about entering the academic realma, needing to prove that you're

(39:04):
nerdy enough to host the scripts, because could you ever
have imagined as a youth that you'd be more accepted,
like breaking down NFL passing concepts than words.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
It's so weird, Sarah, because like doing being in back
in these spaces like Jeopardy, spelling, all that kind of stuff.
It's like this part of my brain that I haven't
been using forever has been activated, and it feels like
coming home in some ways. But I also feel dumb,

(39:32):
like you know, yeah, I'm just like, damn, I haven't
been challenged or I haven't used this part of the
brain for a while, so it is it's both like
a return but also a challenge for me. I mean,
these kids are way smarter than my everyone, so it's
not like that. But I just, yeah, it is almost

(39:54):
like I have to inhabit a part of myself that
I have kept quiet for.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Over love them.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
That's a weird feeling.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I love that because I like that feeling of scratching
the itch in the same way. Sometimes I'll go back
and read something I wrote a long time ago, like
in college and I'm like, dang, if I read that,
you know, piece of like Shakespearean English right now, I
would have no idea what's going on.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
But I wrote this incredibly brilliant thing about it at
one point. Where is that?

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Is that still in my brain? Or did I push
it out so I could tell you who had the
most home runs in like two thousand and eight, Like,
I know, damn it, I don't know if I made
a good swamp there, real I know.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Okay, last question, you.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Have done almost anything, almost everything, like it's been incredible
to watch.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
So what's the dream gig that's still out there?

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Well, I'd like to do the geography. Be let's bring
it back. It stopped being televis. I'm gonna, yeah, make
a plea right now to anyone who's watching or listening
the National Geographic Geography. But I think they stopped like
twenty twenty twenty nine. It was during COVID, I believe,
and that was an event that Alstrobek used to host,
and that was so special to me. As I've said
to you, I competed in geography bees as a kid

(41:00):
said the answer you'd said, you thought I was gonna
be like, I want to be before money super Bowl. No, No,
I want braying back the geography. I love geography. I
think people need to learn it now more than ever.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Agreed, So I agreed.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
I love I love it so much. So yes, that
is my new goal, geography. Be let's do it.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Okay, the word is out there.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Also, every time John Oliver does the bit where he
like puts a map up of a country and then says, ah,
and you didn't even know that's not the country, I'm like,
I sure didn't. And then he replaces it with a
new one and I'm like that's it and he's like,
still not it.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I'm like, yep, didn't know that either.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
So I could benefit from Amina COM's host a geography Bee.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah, I need a little help in the category. Mina.
Always great to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
We cannot wait to watch the spelling b congrats on
all the success.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Thank you so much. Yeah, everybody check it out May
twenty seventh, twenty eighth. I think I have those days, right,
I hope I do. Hi on, go check it out
orspelling me dot com.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Thanks again Demina for taking the time. Can't wait to
watch or hopefully win tonight. In Celebrity Jeopardy All Stars
and of course can't wait to watch the Spelling Bee.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Don't forget.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
You can now watch full length good game interviews on
the Iheartwomen's Sports YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe.
We have to take another break when we return comedians
actually making good jokes about women's sports.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
We never thought we'd see the day stick around. Welcome
back slices.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day. Watch Mina in the
Celebrity Jeopardy All Stars finale tonight eight pm Eastern on ABC.
We always love to hear from you, so hit us
up on email Good Game at wondermediaetwork dot com or
leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o
four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Rate and review.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
It's easy watch WNBA jokes that are actually funny, rating
two out of many comedians now given us the giggles
Talking women Soups review. Your only exposure to WNBA themed
jokes is Michael Chay's Tired Jeers on Snel's Weekend Update
or Terrible Outdated cracks about a lack of attendance or

(43:09):
nobody caring. It's time to add a few new comics
to your social media follows, including.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Josh Gondlman and Macy Isaacs.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Josh, already one of my favorite follows, delivered a dead
on accurate take about w NBA crowds recently.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Take a listen to a bit of it.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
I will tell you when I go to a w
NBA game, it is clear that I am not a
top tier priority fan. And it's okay as all axes.
It's only one point or another. Not everything has to
be about me all the time. I'm not a top toier, priority,
top to your priority fan at a WNBA game. Obviously

(43:49):
queer women and non binary people and I had no
jokes about that. Is that would be rude? Yeah, it
would be rude for me. Amazing fund of people for
jo anything that is that is meant for them. That's
that would be wrong. Me making fun of queer women
and non binary people enjoying a w NBA competition would

(44:09):
be like the lesbian walking out of a Bruce Springsteen concert.
Like a lot of dobe ball guys in there.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Look that how is double?

Speaker 5 (44:18):
What are they doing in there. It's called the safe space. Okay,
it's her room, and it's for us. That's the top tier,
priorqueer women, not binary people. Second tier w NBA fan
is that's straight women testing me absolute outer boundaries.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
That they're heterosential.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Because women with.

Speaker 5 (44:45):
Husbands walking in like it's the night, the night that
every day taking me away from all this greenness.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Every time.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
As a culturally gay straight woman, pushing perhaps even questioning
the boundaries of heterosexuality more and more every day.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yes to everything that Josh said. And then there's Macy.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
One of Macy's bits involves asking the crowd whether a
name belongs to a w team or a Kardashian baby.
And it's actually tougher for the non w fans than
you think. Here's a little bit of that.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
I'm going to give you a name, and I want
you to tell me if you think it's a w
NBA team.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Name or a Kardashian baby.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
First one Sky, that's a team, the Chicago Sky. I
think all cities have one of those. I don't know
why they got it again, could be worse. I'm glad
they're not the Chicago Lady Bulls.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
That would be worse.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
Next one is Storm.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
I like where your head's at.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
You said both, Storm is a team, Stormy.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Is a baby. That's a trick question.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
I'm sorry I had to throw that one in there.
Stormy is a baby, Storm as the Seattle Storm.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Sadly too real, just too real. And it's the problem
when your team name is a singular noun. And that's
just a problem I've had for a long time, to
be honest. Anyway, give them both of all, we'll put
their handles in the show notes. And while we're talking funny,
shout out to Secret Handshake. The folks who keep taking
aim at Donald Trump with different installations on the National Mall.
You might remember that they've done the Golden Toilet or

(46:42):
the statue of Trump and his bff Jeffrey Epstein. Anyway,
they're back, and this time they have put three functioning
arcade games called Epic Fury Straight to Hell on the
mall and you can play them. You can also play
the game online, so please go check it out before
I don't know Ice raids their server headquarters or something
and takes it down.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Because it's really funny.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
You can actually play as the President and you can
choose to order a diet coke, invade Iran, throw some
Epstein files in the fireplace. Just trust me, go check
it out. We'll link to the game in the show notes.
Now it's your turn. Y'all, rate and review. Thanks for listening,
See you next week. Good game, MINA, good game secret
handshake you any comedian who's still punching down instead of

(47:28):
punching up when it comes to women's sports. Good Game
with Sarah 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 Azzi and Bianca Hillier.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Our executive producers are.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our
editors are Emily Rutterer, Lucy Jones, Britney Martinez, and Gianna Palmer.
Production assistants from Avery Loftus and I'm your host, Sarah Spain.

Speaker 5 (48:00):
Yeah.