Inside the Minds of the World's Most Driven Athletes with Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly

In this energizing episode of Post Run High, Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly — co-host of The Deal alongside Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) — shares what elite athletes teach you about business, leadership, and resilience. Jason opens up about his path as a journalist, how running sparked his lifelong curiosity, and what it's like to sit down with legends like Serena Williams and other world-class athletes. He breaks down what makes a great interviewer, how to build trust, and why sports figures often make the best entrepreneurs. With deep appreciation for working alongside A-Rod, Jason offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at interviewing today’s most driven minds. Whether you're a sports fan, aspiring journalist, or entrepreneur, this episode is packed with insights on storytelling, performance, and the mindset that drives greatness.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What is up, guys, Welcome back to Post Run High.
Today I'm here with Jason Kelly. He's the chief correspondent
at Bloomberg Originals and co host of The Deal with
Alex Rodriguez, also known as a Rod. This podcast is
all about movement. It's about learning how our guests move
through the world, how they build momentum in their work,
stay grounded in their personal lives, and keep growing through

(00:25):
every season of life. Every guest we bring on has
an inspiring story that we can learn from in a
real way, and Jason is a perfect example of that.
Jason has built his career by following his curiosity, from
covering Wall Street to Silicon Valley to the growing business
of sports. He's reported from all over the world. He's
interviewed some of the most influential names in finance and culture,

(00:47):
and now he's bringing us a front row seat into
major deals with some of the world's most accomplished athletes, coaches,
and more. Jason is not just telling stories, He's helping
people understand the four versus shaping our world, and today
we get to learn about him before we get into it.
I just want to say thank you so much for
tuning in. Your support means the world to us, and

(01:09):
if you're enjoying Post Run High, please do us a
favor and rate and review the show. Your support helps
us keep bringing you inspiring conversations week after week. All right,
let's get our Post Run High going. Jason Kelly, welcome

(01:33):
to Post Run High.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'm so happy to be here. Great run, great run.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I am so excited for you to be here with me.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
So for context, guys, Jason and I just ran a
little bit over two miles through Brooklyn.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
I loved finding out that you're a runner.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
When I asked you to be on the show, I
had no idea that you had such a running background.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I love running so much.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I sort of fell into it, I guess, as many
people do, as a bit of an alternative. I was
a kid. I was going to high school in Texas,
which I spent my growing up year sort of between
Atlanta and Houston. I was going to high school in Houston,
Texas the same time as high school, and you know,
the natural thing is like you're going out for the
football team. My dad had played high school football, you know,

(02:13):
back in Atlanta, and I went I spent two weeks
doing it, and I hated it, but I also knew,
just sort of the way I was raised, like you
should do a sport, and the only other sport it
was available was cross country, and so I did it,
and that really started my love affair with running, and
I ran all through high school, ran cross country and track,

(02:35):
and I was fine. And then I went to college
and sort of like did the opposite of running. I
was basically sitting and working at the newspaper. And then
I got out of college and one of my very
best friends to this day, guy named Billy Robbins, ran
a marathon my wife and I went to watch him
with his wife, and I was like, I could do that,
Like I could run a marathon, And literally like six

(02:58):
months later, he and I ran a marathon together, and
I went on to run probably a dozen marathons, and
it really became part of my identity, I think, especially
when I was in my twenties and thirties. It just
it was really something I identified myself as. And I

(03:18):
loved the community of it. I loved the ability. I mean,
you have a whole show based on this, the way
you can get to know someone on a run in
a way that you you don't if you're having a
meal or having a drink or in a meeting. It's
just it's a very there's an intimacy to it, and

(03:39):
I think you can't sort of help but be authentic.
It's sort of like, I have two kids who are
college age, and I'm the millionth parent to say this,
but the best conversations you have with your kids is
when you're driving in the car, because you're not looking
each other, you're sort of looking ahead. And that's sort
of like with a run. I've sort of said things

(04:01):
and heard things on a run that I don't think
I would necessarily say face to face.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's amazing how you can foster such good conversation through
shared activity. And it's funny that you said the car
reference because one of the initial inspose for the running
Interview show that we just did was carpool karaoke. H
and I always loved watching that growing up, and when
we had the idea for the running Interview show, I
was like, there's kind of some synergy here between carpool

(04:26):
karaoke and not being face to face but kind of
running side by side or sitting side by side.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, can I tell you another thing that interviewer and
interviewer one of our little tricks that we use, especially
when we make our documentaries. In Bloomber Originals, I host
a show called power Players in addition to the Deal,
and almost always we try and get someone in a
car and we get them to drive. And actually, the
very first time I met not the first time I

(04:52):
met him, but the first really meaningful thing that I
did with Alex Rodriguez was an episode of this series
we did called Athlete Empire, And one of the things
we did is we drove from his house to his
high school, and we put cameras in the car and Mike,
we're both miked up, and he told me just some

(05:14):
incredible stories about what it felt like to be drafted.
He talked about his suspension, you know, he talked about
like real stuff. And I'm convinced it's because when you're
doing something else, you're your guard's a little bit down,
and so you're a little more you're a little more
willing to kind.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Of go there, especially when you're doing such a familiar activity. Yes,
Like there's something about running, especially if you were a
cross country runner growing up, that almost brings you back
in a way to those years where you know you're
running with a group of friends and you know you're
becoming friends with people that maybe you weren't friends with
outside of the cross country team, and just like connects
you in a whole new way.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Totally. I love it, I mean, and it's really it's
a way to really get to know someone well.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Running you through Brooklyn was so fun.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
I just have to say, you have such an impressive
career and when I found out that you were down
to do the show, I was so excited. I found
out about you through watching your Paul Rabel episode on
the Deal with a Rod, and ever since watching that episode,
I found myself going down a wormhole and just being
so fascinated by your work and everything you do, especially

(06:22):
in relation to business and sports business. Before we get
into everything you're up to now, I want us to
rewind and just for everybody to learn your journey and
hear how all of this came to be.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, I mean, I've thought a lot about how I
ended up being where I am, and the person I
give the most credit to is my mom. When I
was five years old, she signed me up for a
creative writing class, and I don't think I could probably
barely write, but I could think about stories. And that's
when I decided I wanted to be a writer. I

(06:57):
didn't know what that exactly was going to entail. I
was a bit of a corporate brat growing up. My
dad had a bunch of different jobs and he went
to work for Procter and Gamble right out of undergrad.
I was born. My parents were really young, and so
I sort of like grew up with them in a
lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
How old were you when they had you?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
My dad was twenty and my mom was nineteen, and
they were high school sweethearts, and so here I was.
And it was a really it was a really fun
childhood because I like my dad finished college while I
was a kid. He went to Georgia Tech, and then
he went to work for Procter and Gamble in a
little town called Jackson, Tennessee, and my brother was born there.

(07:37):
And then my dad had this really interesting moment in
his own life and career where he had been trained
as an engineer and he got into got interested in business,
and he applied to two business schools, University of Memphis,
which was half an hour away, in Harvard Business School,
and he got into both and he the way he

(08:02):
tells the start, I shouldn't tell his story, but I
will because it's sort of our story. His dad, his
late dad, said to him, He's like, whatever you whatever
you need to do. However, we can't help you with money,
but we'll help you however we can. You need to
go to Boston, and that like obviously changed the trajectory
of his career. And so we lived in We lived

(08:22):
in Boston for a couple of years, my parents, my brother,
and I. My mom, who's very southern, would tell you
we were poor as church miss And then we moved
back to Atlanta. My dad went to work for Coca Cola,
and so I sort of grew up in that millieu.
And I do think watching him through his career made
me interested in business. You know, I sort of had

(08:43):
this front row seat to one of the most dynamic
companies in the world, and you know, being the kid
of an executive there, and but you know, all the
time I was thinking, I'm going to be a writer.
I'm going to be a journalist. And I worked in
the high school newspaper. I went to Georgie, I worked
for one of the newspapers on campus there, and I

(09:04):
really thought I was going to be a political reporter.
And then I got a chance to go back to
Atlanta after college to cover the Olympics, and I wanted
to be I was so excited to be home. My
now wife, who I had met in college, was going
to business school down there, and I got a job
at the business newspaper in Atlanta, and I realized politics

(09:26):
was interesting, business was more interesting, and there were just
these big personalities and that as I looked around, and
this has been a theme through my career. Every story
is a business story, you know, whether we're talking about running,
or we're talking about Wall Street, or we're talking about
potato chips, like it's all everything comes back to business.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think that's what's so fascinating about your podcast, The
Deal as you're talking to these incredible athletes and coaches
and people in the world of sports, Yeah, and it
does all fall back to business. And I think that's
one of the most interesting things about Bloomberg and the
work that you guys do, And through the context of
all these different industries that you cover, what would you
say are the components that make a great journalist.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Curiosity is absolutely the first. I think being interested in
other people in wanting to understand their stories, and I
think being willing and eager to be a translator and
to be an explainer. You know, one of the things

(10:29):
that attracted me to business journalism specifically was it felt
like there was a barrier to entry in terms of
it's like, ah, this is complicated and it's business and
its numbers and things like that. I was an English
major and a theology minor, Like, I have no business
training whatsoever. I've gotten a ton of training at Bloomberg

(10:49):
and Bloomberg when I joined in two thousand and two,
Like we literally had a month long boot camp where
I learned all about balance sheets and income statements and
the Bloomberg terminal and all of those great things. But
but being able to distill those issues down in a
way that you know lots of people can understand is

(11:12):
I mean, what an amazing opportunity to be able to
do that. And I think it's a it's a language
that you know, we can we can help other people
speak and uh, and so I think that's so that's
one component of being a journalist. And you know that
the curiosity pieces I think obvious. I also think as

(11:33):
much as I am currently talking, I think one of
the greatest skills is a journalist is to listen, and
I think as an interviewer, and you're so excellent at it.
Part of what is a very powerful thing that I've
discovered as I've tried to become a better and better
interviewer is listening to what the person is saying and

(11:56):
maybe even some of what they're not saying, and to
think about, if you're the audience, what would you want
to know next, and just to sort of go with that.
And oftentimes, and Alex and I talk about this a
lot and are when we're prepping for our podcast, which
do a lot of prep, but so much of it
is about just knowing the information but being willing to

(12:19):
just let it flow.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
When you are a journalist, I think the thing that's
so interesting is you get to talk to so many
people and learn so much through them about what they do,
and you almost become like a subject matter expert through
just having conversation. And I love that you said curiosity
and on one of our recent episodes, as we were
talking about this before we started filming, but I sat
down with Alex Lieberman, who's the founder of Morning Brew,

(12:43):
and we were talking about curiosity, and he was explaining
to me how he thinks about curiosity as a muscle,
and he thinks that there's ways that you can work
the muscle of being curious.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
And so I'm curious about you.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Is there anything that you do that you think helps
you stay curious?

Speaker 3 (13:01):
How do you work your muscle of curiosity?

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Wow, that's a really good question.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
I can give you an example of what he does,
and I thought it was so interesting. So he was
saying the way he works this muscle is he'll go
outside and he'll say, oh, there's a train, how does
that train work?

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Who?

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I wonder who's on the train right now. I wonder
what they do for work? Or this cup, like why
is it designed like this? You know, what was the
what's the importance of the swivels?

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Or you know.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Anyway, So he's just kind of like looking at all
the things around him and thinking to himself kind of
how everything works.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah. I like that. I mean, I think, you know,
I spend so much of my time thinking about people.
And I have a great editor I've worked with at
Bloomberg who who said to me as we were developing
some of our series a few years ago, especially around sports,

(13:53):
he said, I want you to create shows where you
understand what makes people tick, but never ever use the
term what makes people take And and I think a
lot about that. But and I also think about this
notion of finding common ground with people, like being curious

(14:18):
about who they are and then looking for ways that
you can connect with them. And maybe it's you know,
you and I have a commonality around the sport of lacrosse,
you know, and so that like they're you know, your
brother's played, my son's flight. I never played, and yet
I know a lot about it. And I'm very curious

(14:40):
that actually about lacrosse. But but you know, when you
find those things like those are the those are the
moments where candidly, when you're interviewing someone, you need to
get them to trust you. And and part of what
I think we try and do and the deal is
to is to take people into subject areas where they're

(15:03):
comfortable but they haven't thought about it as much. And
so when we interviewed Serena Williams, you know, I remember
this this moment. If I can be a little bit
meta where we had the benefit of like a ton
of research. You know, we have an incredible team who

(15:23):
works with us. I had done a lot of reading.
I'd obviously followed Serena's career very closely. Alex knows her
really well. And we were talking about her first deal,
you know, we talk about people's deals, and her first
endorsement was with Puma, and I had read in her book,

(15:44):
in a book, I believe, a book about her, her
description of being at the table, literally falling asleep at
the table during this this negotiation for her first deal,
and I brought it up and I said, you know,
and I think you fell asleep at the table. And
she looked at me and she goes, no, no, no,
I passed out. She's like, I was so tired. But

(16:06):
there was this if you watch the show, there's a
moment where I feel like her body language changes and
she looks at me as if to say, oh, this
guy did the work, like he knows, like he knows
what he's talking about. Like I'm comfortable now, Like I'm
gonna I'm going to engage in this conversation in a
way that I might not otherwise have because they're in

(16:30):
it with me and I think and so that so
the depth of curiosity I think is interesting too, and
your willingness to, you know, really understand your subject matter
as much as you can and then be open to
wherever they want to go.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
And I feel like Serena Williams is such a good
example if somebody you're so naturally curious about, especially if
you're somebody that's followed her career, which I feel like
so many of us have, even if we haven't followed
it so closely.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
And yet there is this whole element, you know, this
whole side of her that I feel like and this
was the huge opportunity that I feel like we had
with our show and we continue to have with our show,
which is, you know, people like Serena, people like Michael Strahan,
people like Magic Johnson. I mean, they are unbelievable business people.

(17:14):
They have applied this playbook, this skill set that they
created as athletes to this whole other thing, to unbelievable success.
And so understanding how that translates is just is just
fascinating to me.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
And it's fascinating to sit down with the people that
have translated it so well, because there's some people that
don't write, and it's so cool to see how some
of these people have created incredible businesses and careers outside
of the sport that they exceled at. When you think

(17:56):
about Bloomberg, you think about finance and data, and of
course we said that business applies to so many different things.
I know you've been at Bloomberg since two thousand and two.
When did you make the transition to focusing on sports?
And I know you focus on a range of topics, yes,
but when did sports become something that you were really
passionate about?

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I mean, I can, I can track it back to
a very specific moment. It was the summer of twenty
twenty and recently, pretty recently, I had kept an eye
on sports sort of in my peripheral vision, in part
because I'd covered Wall Street for a long time. And
one of the things that I was seeing was a

(18:36):
lot of people that I had covered, private equity tycoons,
in particular buying sports teams and investing in sports. So
that was so that was sort of in my mind.
I had seen, you know, Josh Harris and Mark Lazrey
and Tony Wrestler, you know, people that I had covered.
David Blitzer people who I had covered as just private
equity investors get into sports, and so you know, the

(18:59):
the in the most basic way, business journalism is about
following the money. That's like at its core, like that's
what you do. And so that was on my mind.
But the really catalytic moment was I wrote a cover
story for a Bloomberg BusinessWeek and did a TV special
about Lebron James and Maverick Carter and their creation of

(19:20):
spring Hill. And it came at this you unbelievably historic moment.
It the interview and the story just happened to be
the first time that Lebron had spoken publicly about the
murder of George Floyd, about Black Lives Matter, about COVID,

(19:42):
He talked in that interview about the death of Kobe Bryant, know,
all these things that had happened, and at the same
time he talked about this incredible business ambition that he
and Maverick had and what they were building at spring Hill,
not just in the media company, but you know, his
ambitions in business.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
And.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
That just hit me as there is something really interesting
happening here. Because Lebron James is the most famous athlete
in the world or one of them and has this ambition,
and he's not alone, and he's following in the footsteps

(20:25):
of Magic Johnson, he's following the footsteps to some extent
of Aron And so I had the great opportunity, with
the backing of some senior editors at Bloomberg, to just
go and start exploring what we describe as this intersection
of business, sports, and culture. And I think the end
culture piece was a really critical bit of it, because

(20:47):
there were in our people who were covering sort of
the transactions, and we do some of that as well.
But I think what sports does, and I think you
appreciate this as much as anyone is, it just hits
so far above its weight in terms of cultural impact.
If you think about you know, we're we're taping this

(21:08):
just you know a few days after the next have
like lost the you know, lost in the playoffs. I mean,
it was a like moment in New York, you know,
whenever there's like a big victory or a big loss.
You know, when the Yankees win the World Series, which
they have not done in a long time, as Alex's
pay to remind us, you know, these are moments, you know,

(21:31):
and even you know, watching my son play college lacrosse.
It's like all of the like sports just hits different
and it and and I think that appreciation that something
meaningful was happening both culturally, but then also the economics
have just you know, exploded, and we sort of got

(21:53):
lucky in the sense that it really took off from there.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
And I want to tap into the culture topic as
soon as we start talking about your pot cast a
little bit more in depth, because I noticed through listening
to the deal that you guys do do with such
a beautiful job of tying that in too kind of
each of the athletes or people that you feature on
the show. There are so many things that you can
cover in the world of sports business. How do you

(22:16):
decide as a journalist what to cover?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
I try and think a lot about what's new and
what's next. And we recently had Melody Hobson on our show.
It's an unbelievable investor, you know, Coco of Aerial Investments,
you know, has been on the just recently left the

(22:39):
board of Starbucks's on the board of JP Morgan. She's
icon in business. And one of the things that she said,
which is really stuck with me. In fact, I mentioned
to somebody today, is this idea that she so she's
created a fund solely to invest in women's sports, and
the way she's framing it is women's sports is a
growth stock. It's a great you know, and that's how

(23:01):
how they at Ariel are viewing it. And so those
are the ones that are especially interesting to me. These
you know, sort of like high growth stories, a little
bit of risk. I mean, I think women's sports is
an absolutely fascinating area. We've we've been looking very closely
at it for really four or five years, and I
do think anticipated, I dare say, a lot of what

(23:23):
has come in terms of like the higher valuations and
the big investments, the viewership, the sponsorship, everything that's going
on there. So those are the stories that are super
compelling to me. I think the other the other stories
are really and this is what we try and do
through the deal and other venues, is understanding the why

(23:45):
of you know, why this is a big opportunity, you know,
how a league came to be. You know, we we
talked about Paul Rabil a little bit. You know what
a cool story he has of deciding as a professional
athlete that the best thing for his sport is to
create an entirely new league. What like, how does that like,

(24:08):
what's the what's the process of that?

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Well? I even liked listening to Paul Raebel and hearing
him talk about how he's trying to make it a
sport that's more easily available for people even in like
the inner city, you know, it's making it like a street.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Basketball, like street lacrosse. Yes, I loved hearing that part
of it.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, And so I think those the stories are the
most compelling to me are the ones where people are pushing,
pushing a new idea or a new investment, or a
new market, or a new a new geography, you know,
creating a new league, you know. League one volleyball is
a really interesting one that we've that we've covered a

(24:46):
little bit. We covered on the deal, you know, which
is one of the first leagues where there's they have
the youth all the way up to the professional within
this one league. So those sorts of the story's the
most compelling to me.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Really quickly, I just wanted to say thank you so
much for listening. Your support means so much to me.
And if you're enjoying this conversation with Jason, please make
sure to follow the show so you never miss a conversation.
All right, let's get back to the episode. I've interviewed
a lot of female athletes for the running interview show,
and from people from you know, Olympic runners to soccer players,

(25:29):
basketball players, and the one thing, of course that all
of these professional women athletes are so passionate about.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Is the future of women's sports.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
So I'm curious as somebody that has been doing a
lot of research on it and kind of stays on
the pulse of what's going on within the business of sports.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Where do you think women's sports are heading?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
It is one of the questions I think in sports
right now, the valuations are rising really fast. You know,
in the past year alone, you've had records just keep
getting set in terms of franchise valuations. So Angel City,
which is the women's soccer club in Los Angeles, you
know changed hands. Will Obey and Bob Biger bought that

(26:10):
at evaluation two hundred and fifty million. That was a record.
Well then New York Liberty, which is owned by Claire
Wusai and Josi just raise money at a four hundred
and fifty million dollar valuation. So new record.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Based on those valuations, do you think social media has
shifted the way women's loves are being marketed?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Totally? I mean, I think that so much of what
is happening with women's sports is absolutely fueled by social media,
both in terms of the teams but also in terms
of the individual athletes. If you think about you know,
obviously Caitlin Clark is sort of the uber example of
all this, but you think about Juju Watkins at USC,

(26:54):
you think about Hailey van Lyth, you think about all
of these athletes who have these massive social presences. I mean, also,
I think one thing we cannot overlook when it comes
to women's sports is the benefit that the changes in name,
image and likeness and IL have had. They I mean,
obviously they've had a dramatic and profound effect on college

(27:18):
football and men's college basketball, but they've had a similarly
similarly profound effect on women's college basketball, especially you know,
Paige Beckers, who just came into the WNBA this season
out of Yukon, you know, had a thriving and like
very profitable and IL portfolio. Azy Fudd, her teammate who's

(27:41):
still at Yukon, her former teammate who's still at Yukon,
you know, has millions of dollars in anil. So I
think that exposure and then the other thing.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I could go on and on about this, but well,
I love that you can go on and on about this,
and I love knowing also that you only just started
diving into sports in twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, you have such a I love this stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
I mean, so much knowledge on the on sports as
a whole.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's so fun. I mean, and I do think, you know,
one of the things that is, you know, that is
certainly true about women's sports specifically, is the disruption across
the media landscape has made it so much more possible

(28:28):
for people to see things that they just didn't see before.
And one of the things that we've really seen when
it comes to women's sports, and there's a lot of
data around this as well. There's a great group called
Sports Innovation Lab out of Boston that's done some great
work about the fluid fan and specifically around fans of

(28:49):
women's sports. That it's demonstrated that when it is put
on air and we've seen this in the Women's Final four,
people watch it, you know, Yeah, I mean, it is unbelievable,
you know, and that translates to, you know, when it's basketball,
college end pro, the NWSL, which is the you know,

(29:11):
professional women's soccer league, you know, is seeing just bigger
and bigger numbers, and so the what needs to happen next?
Is it just those deals need to keep happening so
that people can see it and engage with the content.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Do you feel like there's a ripple effect of the
NIL that we haven't seen just yet?

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I mean there is. We're at a really critical
moment when it comes to NIL, I think because inevitably,
like if you were to google NIL and wild Wild West, like,
you would see a million searches come back, because that's
what everybody says it is, and it's not wrong. There
is a settlement, not to get too technical about it,

(29:52):
there's a settlement coming between the NCAA and the House
of Representatives that is going to bring some measure of
order to howllege. Athletes are going to get paid and
bring some guardrails to NIL. It does need to happen.
I think the question I hope for showing my personal
view a little bit, I hope the question of whether

(30:15):
we should pay college athletes has been asked and answered.
I think we all should agree that yes, they should
get paid. They in some form or fashion. A you know,
the getting paid with the college education is a farce.
And the amount of money that's being generated, especially for
college football and college basketball, the amount of money that

(30:38):
the schools, the coaches, et cetera. Are getting on the
backs of free labor, like that's that's patently unfair. I
do think there are more ripple effects. I don't know exactly.
I don't think anybody knows exactly where it's going to go.
I do think though, that we will continue paying college athletes, and.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
We should I agree.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I mean, I feel so bad for the athletes that
made it to college all these big scholarships and then
get injured, and it's like they didn't even have the
opportunity to make.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
A little bit of change before not being able.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
To go pro totally. And the and the percentage of
people who you know, really do make it so small
is infinitesimal. It's so small, so small. The reason that
Livy Dunn and Paige Beckers and Juju Watkins and so
many of the other athletes female and male are are

(31:33):
getting paid is because they deliver, you know, like people like,
people listen to them, they buy the products that they're selling,
so you know that. I think it's it's really important
to note that, you know, State Farm and Ally, I mean,
those are two companies that have invested heavily in women's sports.

(31:53):
They're not doing it that that's not charitable. They're doing
it because they can make money. And the big shift
that's happened really, I think in the past three to
five years is and just about anyone who's deeply involved
and women's sports will tell you this is that there
was a massive shift of team owners and investors who

(32:15):
went from me like, oh, this is really cool, like
we're like supporting, like go girls, like this is great,
to like, I want to make some money. And the
fact of the matter is, and this is like Bloomberg
guy speaking like, I love that when people make money,
like more people are going to pile in because they
want to make money. And that's how businesses grow, and
that's how women's sports is going to grow, is that
people keep investing in it.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
When you first started out as a journalist at Bloomberg,
what did your role look like then and kind.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Of how has it evolved.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Now I'm I'm glad you put it in that context
because I feel unbelievably for fortunate to have had the
career that I've had at Bloomberg. And you know, I
came in in two thousand and two in the Atlanta
bureau like covering big, big technology companies, you know, writing
about earnings and you know, writing off of press releases
and trying to break news about Intel and Motorola and

(33:16):
Texas Instruments and things like that. And you know, I
do feel like my career at Bloomberg where I've been.
I mean, I make the joke that I've written everything
from a tweet to a book. You know, I've had
the opportunity to write magazine cover stories for multiple magazines

(33:40):
that we've had. I've hosted television shows, radio shows, you know,
original series. I was our New York peer chief. I
wrote two books. I ran our live events business. I mean,
it is a it is a company and a news

(34:00):
organization that is deeply invested in innovation, you know. I mean,
this is a company that was founded in nineteen eighty
one by Mike Bloomberg because he saw an opportunity to
bring transparency to the bond market, and so that notion
of like transparency but also creating something new like pervades

(34:23):
everything that we do. And you know, I think it
favors and I would like to think I'm an example
of this. It favors people who want to try new things.
You know, I've been very fortunate to be able to
raise my hand and say I want to try this,
like I think there's something here, even if it's like

(34:43):
I want to write a story or I want to
go to this place and report this out and see
what's happening. I want to go interview this person. One
of the things we think about and I think the
Deal is a really interesting example of this is that
represents how we're thinking now is we need to to
meet people where they are in terms of getting our

(35:04):
good stuff to them. And so when it comes to
the Deal, it's one of the first times we really
can see something from the beginning as it's a video show,
it's a TV show, it's a podcast, it's social, it's written,
it's you know, distributed it however you want to get it,
it's going to be there for you, whether you maybe

(35:25):
sometimes whether you want or not, but and listen it
you know, it took a lot of people sort of
coming together to do that, but that was the idea
was and and and we had never to my knowledge,
done a show where, you know, we paired an external
talent with an internal talent. I use that term loosely,

(35:46):
you know, a Bloomberg journalists and an outside expert to
sort of create a show you know, like this and
uh and so I think it speaks to our willingness
to like, let's try it.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
What I'm really getting from that too, from you also
as an individual, is it's so cool knowing how as
a journalist you've been able to tap into all of
these different mediums of storytelling. You're not just a writer
like you're a host, You're you're a camera facing journalist.
Did you ever think, like when you were writing for
the newspaper back in college your high school, that you'd

(36:18):
eventually be sitting next to a Rod hosting a show
with him on camera? Just speak so much to being
a curious person and being open to.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Trying new things.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well, thank you. I did not. I definitely did not,
and I definitely have. I definitely have had some moments.
I was flying off to do some interview for the
deal and my college aides sons. You know, we have
a family like every like every family should, we have
a good family. Text text Chaine and I said, you know, boys,

(36:49):
I'm not gonna be home. I'm going to be doing this.
And they're like, what, you know, who are you interviewing?
And I think it was like I think it was
actually season one and we're going to LA and I
was interviewing. We had in one day we taped interviews
with Maria Sheripovi and Derek Jeter.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I just watched the Derek Jeter one.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
It was great, which was amazing, and it was an
amazing conversation to see the two, you know, to see
Alex and Derek together, and and I'm pretty sure one
of my sons that day texted back, this isn't a job,
and I can see the point like it, it often
doesn't seem like it, and it is really fun to

(37:31):
get to talk to people like that, and honestly to
you know, I feel very fortunate to work alongside Alex.
He's a great partner. We you know, we've gotten very close,
and I think the best episodes are the ones where
we really just you know, we're in a flow we're
teammates and we're partners.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
First, I want to ask, you know, how did this
podcast come to be and what is it like working
alongside somebody like a Rod.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah. So I had done I'd done this series called
Athlete Empire as part of Bloomberg Originals, and and I
had interviewed Alex during COVID for you know, you know,
we're all remote. We were doing these remote conferences, and
he happened to be coming in a few months later,

(38:18):
he happened to be coming into Bloomberg for an in
person interview, not with me, just for Bloomberg Television, and
someone flagged that he was coming in and I was like,
oh'll go say hi. I've never I don't remember. I
think i'd met him once, like we had shaken hands
years before. And so I went into the makeup room actually,
and he's like getting made up and I was like, hey,

(38:38):
I'm Jason. You know we talked to me. He's like, hey, man,
how you doing Toredett? And I sort of just pitched
him in that moment. I said, I have this idea
about a series on athletes and their business ambitions. I really,
you know, I am intrigued by what you've done. I'd
love to come and spend a couple of days with

(38:59):
you in my if you're a game for it. And
he said, pretty much on the spot, he said, yeah,
that would be great. And he's like, and this is
the way he is, He's like he's thinking about it, like, yeah,
we could do this, and I'll show you this thing
and you can come to the office and all these
different things. So we did that and then we just
kept in touch. He has an amazing chief business officer
named Kelly Leferrier and she lives up here in the Northeast,

(39:24):
and so she and I would get together, you know,
like every few months, just have lunch. And about three
years ago she called and said, you know, Alex and
I have some ideas about, you know, how you and
he could work together. You're going to be in Miami
at all, And I happened to be going down for
a speaking engagement, and so we had lunch and we

(39:47):
we started it was it was as he was getting
into his ownership his then minority ownership of the Minnesota
Timberwolves and Lynx, and so we got into that. We
basically just like sit down and we're just like going
We're just talking about like, oh and this thing and
what do you think about this? And and he's asked me,
like what have I seen with other ownership groups? And
we're just like rapping and he's like, we should work together.

(40:12):
And I said, well, maybe we should. We could do
a show and we could do a podcast. And he said, well,
but what would the show be. And I remember saying
I was like, well, not to be too like Seinfeld
about it, but like this is the show. Like this
is the show, Like it's us talking and you know,
we'd bring people in that we know and talk to
them about the you know, sort of their business ambitions,

(40:35):
like and you know, and you would you know, be
able to weigh in with your experience and you know,
I'm the journalist in the room, et cetera. And he
basically said, I love it. Go back to New York
see what everybody thinks. And I did, and like a
few months later we were off and running, which again
like sort of speaks to Bloomberg's you know, willingness to

(40:56):
be like, yeah, this sounds like a good idea and
we trust you and and let's see how it goes.
That one of the funniest things was I think We
literally went through like two hundred and fifty names for this,
like we just like we couldn't come up with something
for the show, and you know, they're like bad puns
related to baseball, and you know, and then stuff that

(41:17):
just like didn't really capture it, and we like, but
we kept sort of coming back to this idea of
the deal, and finally there was a text exchange where
I think it was Kelly said, I'm here with Alex.
He wants to know like what, like what do you
want and like what do you like the most? And
I said, I really liked the deal and he's like,
I do, too.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Done.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
And what's funny about that is, I don't think we
realized at the time how much of a nice framework
the name gave us because, as you well know as
a fellow podcaster, a lot of podcasts out there, a
lot of deals and a lot of deals. But we
and we wanted something that would immediately say to people,

(42:02):
both the guests and the listeners and the viewers, this
is going to be a little bit different. Like we're like,
if we're talking to Michael Strahan, we're not talking about
we may talk a little bit about football, but we're
really going to talk about him as a businessman, you know,
and if we're talking to you know, Josh Harris, the
owner of the Washington Commanders in the Philadelphia Philadelphia seventy

(42:23):
six ers and more, but we're going to talk about
deals like we're going to talk and you know, and
on that episode we talked about the deal to you know,
build this unbelievable new stadium in Washington and sort of
what it took to get that. And so it gives
us this kind of home base in a way to
sort of build the conversation around it.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
That's how it feels when you're listening and you know
you're going to learn about a very niche topic about
this person.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Is that a specific thing, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
That you really don't get to hear about in other interviews.
Out of all the athletes you guys have been able
to interview on your show, who would you say is
the most business savvy?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
I mean, A Rod is definitely up there. I would
say it's hard. It's hard to choose. Straighthan blew me away.
I think his I think his approach it was interesting.
So we we essentially did sort of back to back

(43:21):
episodes around him or sort of involving him because we
we taped an episode with him. And then he has
a partner named Constance Schwartz Marini who they created this
company called Smack Together, and she really had such a
strong hand in making him who he is. She's also
the chief advisor to Coach Prime. I mean, she's a force.

(43:44):
And it's one of my all time favorite episodes and
it's actually one of our best performing episodes as well.
Cons is Michael's ambition and his understanding of how he
could use the platform that he had, not just as
an athlete, but as an athlete in New York. I

(44:07):
think was so smart and so compelling. And he is
also such a nice and genuine human being, and so
I think I really was impressed by his depth of understanding,
his willingness to work hard, you know, very holistically. So

(44:36):
he is definitely he's definitely someone that I hold in
high esteem on that.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, And I like that you said his ability to
work hard, because I feel like that's and I mean,
you guys know more than anybody, but I feel like
that that grit level is such a common thread that
you hear about that athletes have.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
And even when I was talking to John Gray.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
I was asking him who do you guys look for
in a new hire at Blackstone, And one of the
examples that he gave is he said, you know, I
love hiring athletes because they do what it takes. And
totally it's cool knowing that your sons are your sons
a college lacrosse player, because I know from experience with
my brothers, like it was such a good mark on
the resume to have that team experience, that background. Because

(45:22):
companies do love hiring athletes.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
And I will tell you the thing that I and
so I'll take the first question in a slightly different direction,
which is I think one attribute, the attribute even beyond
working hard, discipline, goal setting, all of that that I
admire and appreciate so much, and I appreciate it every

(45:47):
day with alex is coachability. And I think the the
ability to take feedback constructively is an absolute superpower. And
I see it with my son and I in his teammates.
And I do think one of the reasons that you

(46:10):
know there is a very high percentage of athletes who
get to the C suite is because they have a
lot of those skills, and I do think feedback is
one of them and you think about it, it totally
makes sense in that. I mean, I've watched my son
do this where he's on the field, he makes a mistake,
he comes off, coach gets in his face, says, don't

(46:32):
do this again, and then he can't go sit on
the bench and like cry. You know, he like he's
got to he literally has to go back out on
the field and take that in and learn from it
immediately and and not and and then move on and
then and sort of internalize it and pack it away

(46:53):
and do it right the next time, you know, if
you think about you know, and Alex talks about this
all the time, like the numberer of times he struck
out and then he's got and then you know, probably
twenty minutes later, he's got to go up and do
it again. And he's got to figure out, Okay, what
did the pitcher do last time? What I learned from that?
What are my teammates telling me, What is my hitting

(47:14):
coach saying, what is my manager saying? You know, you
babble a ball like the next pitch is coming, like
you got to go. And that is an unbelievably valuable
skill in life.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Absolutely having that adaptability is so important totally. In your
conversation with Serena, I found it so interesting when she
was saying that the advice her dad gave her when

(47:48):
she was younger was telling her that you're not going
to make the most of your money on the court,
You're going to make it off the court. And I
loved hearing about her first deal with Puma and how
or something about a cat suit and this whole kind
of cultural phenomenon of what she was wearing on the
court and how that catapulted her into almost like a
different stratosphere of a player. So on that note, I

(48:11):
would love it if we could dive into cultural capital
and its impact on business.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
I think if I had to, you know, if I
had to TLDR it, I mean, what I would say
is she knew that she was doing something important when
she wore the you know. I mean, if you google
Serena Williams and catsuit, like you'll see you'll see a
million pictures of it. I think what she realized, and
what's such an amazing lesson is the cultural impact that

(48:40):
sports and our sports, our top athletes have on the
broader world and how much they influence what we wear,
what we buy, what we think. And so that moment
where she essentially was authentic self, she changed the narrative

(49:06):
about not just who she was, but what the sport
could be. What sport could be, you know, in the
in the broader conversation, and just the profound influence that
you know, people can have by the by the choices
they make. And you know, I think we love sports

(49:27):
for those reasons because it does as I as I
was saying earlier, it just it hits bigger, it hits different.
There's a there's an emotion to it. There's a connection
that we have to our teams. You know, I grew
up down South, and the the deep emotional connection that

(49:50):
people have to their college football teams, the only the
only thing that I think is comparable is English football.
You know that, like the tribalism, the deep generational connection
to these teams, this notion that you're very being sort
of rises and falls on the performance of this of

(50:13):
this club or this team is just amazing. And some
of that is unhelping at times, but it's also I mean,
what an amazing connection to have is that you know,
I went to Georgetown thirty years ago. I still rise
and fall on Georgetown basketball fall mostly these days, but sadly,
but you know, I think about those iconic athletes. I

(50:35):
think about you know again with that experience, you know,
I think about how culturally relevant I mean, think about
the impact that Allan Iverson had as a player on
the culture on fashion, Like Lebron James isn't Lebron James
without Alan Iverson, you know. And you know, even the

(50:55):
coaches that we see now. Not to put too much
stock in my alma manter, but it's like John Thompson
and like completely changed the narrative about like who a
coach should be, you know, how he should treat his players,
what players should expect, what a school should expect from
a coach. I mean, the sports is just I mean,
this is this is why I do feel so passionately
about what we do, is because sports allows us to

(51:18):
connect in a way that almost nothing else does.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Part of what you just said leads me to your book,
Sweat Equity. You wrote an entire book on the booming
fitness industry for recreational athletes. Yeah, can you talk to
us a little bit about what inspired the book?

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah? I mean, what's funny is it really it was
encapsulated like in Our Run Together, you know, in that
I mean that my inspiration for that book was exactly
what I was living in the exact sense that you
and I were running through Brooklyn. Of this like this
connection with another human being, this association with being healthy

(51:58):
and thinking about my mind and my body. And then
of course the business journalist kicks in, and then it's
a question of like, oh, by the way, I'm also
spending a ton of money, like whether it's like to
go run a race, whether it's to go to a
Peloton class, whether it's to go to Berry's boot camp,
whether it's to you know, buy Ron or Lulu Lemon

(52:18):
or whatever that may be. And so the main conceit
of that book, which I think holds true, although I
would obviously, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I think the true even more so it's becoming more
and more relevant.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I mean, I would obviously write with different examples today
or a few different examples. Although some you know, like
Lulu Lemon has endured, obviously, Barry's boot Camp has endured.
You know, there are some things like color Run that
you know, you're like, oh, yeah, we're color Run, Okay,
tough mutter like that. Yeah. I mean people people do
them in a way.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
So those were such a moment.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I mean those were like the beginning of fitness because
coming this thing that people identify with versus just being
like a part of their lifestyle exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yeah, And that was and I do think and that
was really the like if if there's as they say
in the TV, like there was a log line that
was it. It was like how you know, exercise moved
from like something we did to who we are. And
part of it was even just the way we you know,
the way we dressed, the idea that you know, men

(53:26):
and women were you know, going grocery shopping in like
the Lululemon leggings or you know, showing up and talking
about their workouts and and all of those things. So
it was you know, what's funny is if I had
to write that, I've thought about this. If I had
to write the book over again today, I would have
made it even more experiential because I think so much

(53:50):
of it was about kind of what what I was
seeing and living and and and people that I knew.
And there was also this you know, really strong overlap
with the people who I was interacting with through my
work as a business journalist because I mean, if you
you know, there are a lot of former athletes who

(54:12):
work on Wall Street. There are a lot of also
like durance athletes, you know, marathon ors, triathletes, et cetera.
There's a there's definitely a Vent diagram that's almost a
circle of like high achievers who you know, run marathons
and do all the endurance stuff.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
My parents were in the triathlon like cruise when I
was growing up.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
It's funny, I'm I'm in it a lot less now,
just I mean maybe I'm a bit of a cliche.
It's like I play more golf now because I can
play with my sons, and like it's a whole new thing.
Like yeah, and part of it is like I was
looking for a new challenge and I wanted to to
do something, and now I'm like that guy who's like
talking about golf all the time, which maybe I don't love,

(54:55):
but I do. Remember, you know, it's like my running
group and my running team and you know, and the
your your schedule. I mean I remember just getting up.
I mean my wife would would would WinCE at this,
like you know, getting up at like four forty five
five in the morning to like get in ten miles
before work because like I had a marathon and like

(55:16):
I really wanted to qualify for Boston, and it was just,
you know, I cared so much about what I ate.
I cared so much about like you know, alcohol and
you know, all of these things that were just it
was so much of who I was and I and
I certainly wasn't alone.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Were you able to pinpoint when the shift kind of happened.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
One of the big moments was I remember in the
eighties living in Atlanta and watching my mom like work
out to the Jane Fonda, like the HS tapes, and
so that was sort of the front end of it.
And I think that as we got into the like

(56:00):
mid to late nineties was really when when it started
to it started to sort of become more and more
of the lifestyle. I think Baby Boomers had something to
do with it, But then you know, I'm Gen X
and I think it was my generation that you know,
coming into the again late nineties early two thousands, like

(56:24):
started to run more and then and then the and
then the next level up was really that boutique fitness
craze and you know, soul cycle was such a moment.
And one of the things I write about in that
book is that I took from uh investor friend of
mine in Atlanta, was this notion of like cheeseburgers and

(56:44):
cupcakes and that neither of which is especially healthy, which
makes it an even funnier fitness metaphor. But the like
cup I mean remember when like cupcakes were all the
crazy in New York stities like Magdellian sprinkles and all
these different things, like cupcakes were of a fat like
it was like cupcakes. My friend Alan tatl who came
up with this, like he would tell you that, like

(57:06):
with everything, like cheeseburgers are actually eternal. So like yoga
is a cheeseburger. Like people have done yoga literally for
thousands of years. It's sort of got big and you know,
sixties and seventies and it's still like it's still you know,
like steady state running is a cheeseburger. Cycling is a cheeseburger.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
I love this analogy.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Soul cycle cupcake.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Soul cycles a cupcake. And like remember flywheel, you know,
like you know bar I think is a little bit
of a cupcake. Like you you can pretty easily, like
separate them out, and so so I like that. I
mean that that idea feels that idea feels enduring to me.
I mean pelotons, I think a fascinating case study. I

(57:51):
didn't write about it a lot in the book because,
and this is funny, I don't think I've ever really
talked about this, so you got, yeah, yeah, I intentionally
didn't write about pelotons. So that book came out in
twenty sixteen. I intentionally didn't write about it because I
was like, this is not going to work. I was like,

(58:12):
this doesn't make sense. People aren't going to work out
in their home, Like that's dumb. I was dead wrong,
and then I was kind of right. I mean, depending
on how you like if you look at the if
it was like COVID exactly, if you look at the
stock chart, I was dead wrong, and then I was right. Yeah.
Having said that, I still have my peloton like in
my basement. I am pretty you know, I'm pretty loyal

(58:36):
to it. I use the exercise and things like that.
So so I'm the jury's probably a little a little
bit out on that.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
I am still curious about it. It's funny.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
I I love Peloton. I remember during COVID I bought
one of the bikes for my family. I spent like
all my money on a bike because I was like,
I'm going to be the chief like officer of working
out in this house, and we are all going to
be fit for stay and fittether as we're locked in
the you know, locked in this house in Connecticut. I
recently have leaned into at home workouts, and I've been
like loving apps and being able to like not waste

(59:09):
my money on a boutique workout at a at you know,
like spending forty bucks on a class, and to have
an app that I can just do I actually have
been really enjoying, which is kind of interesting because I
was never one of those people.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
And I do think sorry, just last thought on that,
Like I think that's one area where I feel like
AI may actually be helpful, something smart enough that this
probably exists and somebody's going to like send it to
us after this airs, but like something that like can
take my data and be like okay, not just like oh,

(59:40):
take it a little easier today, but like do this workout,
you know, and like based on like what you've done
over the past five days. Like maybe don't go for
a run, maybe lift some weights.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
And I have hubertailored to you.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
Yes, yes, and I and I do think and I
guess what I wrestle with when it comes to fitness,
and I did. I believed in it when I wrote
the book, and I still believe in it. You know.
Part of what makes people spend thirty five forty fifty
bucks to go to classes like they want to be
with other people who are like their people, you know,

(01:00:16):
and millionth person to say that, you know, fitness boutiques
are the new bars that go where everybody knows your name.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
The workout classes that I all do are most like
I mostly do them to have a social experience with
my friends, Like I have a Wednesday night class that
we go to when we we have a group chat
and if we're all down to go, we go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
And it's awesome. Good way to see your friends do
something healthy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Right exactly, experience protein shake afterwards, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Exactly, Manhattan exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
And I do think with AI are experiences even you know.
I was talking about this again with Alex Leebermia the
other day, who's the morning brew guy, And he was saying,
what if you could get a newsletter kind of like
the Presidential Briefing. Yes, that was tailored to you every
single morning, you know, sent right to your email.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
And now you're having.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
This like hyper personalized experience, and I think we're going
to get to that. Yeah, everything that we do, well,
You've had an incredible career. You have talked to so
many fascinating people. I'm curious, what is one story that

(01:01:21):
you know kind of lives rent free in your head,
That's your favorite interviewer story that you've ever told or covered.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
One that I remember so same same series that I
first met Alex and was athlete umpire and I did
we did an episode about Steve Young, who I had met,
like very briefly, and you know obviously had like really
admired as a kid growing up and and had also

(01:01:49):
followed the fact like he had like he's a legitimate
private equity investor, started a like real private equity firm.
And so there's this great moment that I'll never forget
where again going back to the idea that like, we
love to go for a drive with somebody. So we
we set it up so that we we were at

(01:02:13):
meeting in his office and then we were going to
drive down to Levi's Stadium where the forty nine Ers play,
and like walk on the field with him and his
colleague Junior Bryant, who had played a notre name and
then played with him at the forty nine ers, And
so we're going to talk about like you know this,
you know this intersection of business and sports. And so

(01:02:34):
we unbeknownst to me, the crew went and like set
up the car and we go out and so we were,
you know, they're filming us. We walk out of the
car and we go to Steve Young's minivan and like
we get in the minivan and he looks at it and
I was like, this is this. I was like, I
love a minivan. This is a great ride. And he's like, listen,
if you have a bunch of kids and you don't

(01:02:56):
have a minivan, you're an idiot. And it was just
like an amazing moment where I was like, oh my god, Steve,
you like this is this is so cool, Like I
don't know why that one just like lives with me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
It's so real.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
It was so it was so real, and so that
was one fun thing where I was like I can't believe,
Like I can't believe Steve Young and I were talking
about minivans.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Anyway, I always joke, by the way, I always joke
with Jeremy, my fiance, that a minivan is the Dexpex
thing to a black Suv.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Oh, minivans are the best. Like I when we had
to like our minivan just like died a couple a
year or so ago, and we going back to one
of our shared subjects, we took that to so many
lacrosse tournaments over the years that we literally just called
it the Laxmobile. And when my lacrosse player son, like

(01:03:52):
when we had to retire it, he was like rest
in power, Laxmobile. I mean, it was just like it
was so good to it. It's like a Honda to
say that had god knows how many miles on it,
and probably you know, is ended up in a junk
yard somewhere just based on like the lacrosse equipment in
the back probably ruined it forever. But any case, so

(01:04:13):
Man Evans forever, I mean the deal story. There have
been some really some really fun fun moments on that show.
I mean this Serena. The Serena one was I think
just epic because it was just so it was just
such a moment. And you know, sitting with the two

(01:04:33):
of them, I think definitely was a pinch me moment.
I do think sitting with you know, sitting with Alex
and Derek Jeter and talking about their relationship and you know,
having an open and honest conversation about their aspirations and
their memories and their friendship over the years. You know,

(01:04:59):
for a for a kid who loves baseball, you know,
to sit with these these two sort of iconic guys
and just kind of chop it up was pretty wild.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Lastly, as we wrap it up, I want to ask you,
after twenty plus years of reporting, what is something that
you want everybody that listens to you, reads what you do,
watches you to take away from your work.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Wow, that's a really, really good question. I do think
that I've been so fortunate in getting to do all
of these different things, and especially doing what I'm doing now.
It's like, I do appreciate that this is fun. This
is fun, and I think sometimes we overthink it and

(01:05:51):
sometimes we don't stop and realize that what we're really
trying to do. Like in the business, especially the business
that I'm in right now, it really is about connecting
with people, and connecting with people is meaningful, and we
don't do it enough in this like hyper you know,

(01:06:11):
hyper click day and age. And I do think that
this notion of like be kind, have fun, it's not
always that serious. Enjoy what you're doing. Like I have

(01:06:32):
the great benefit of enjoying what I do all the time,
and so if I had to have somebody to take away,
it's like, yeah, he seems to be having a good time.
And and I love that, like I love like my
some of my favorite moments on the on the Deal
or when you know, Alex and I are just like

(01:06:53):
cutting up.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
And you can definitely tell how much fun you guys
are happening through just watching you do your show. Oh,
I was going to say, what would be your one
piece of advice for me as an aspiring journalist, but
I feel like you answered it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
It really is just to have fun and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Be yourself yourself. I mean, it's funny. So I mean, again,
this is a little bit of a metastory. But like
I when I learned I was coming on the show,
I did email my friend John Gray, who had been
on who did who I trust? Implicitly? And I said,
any advice, and he said, be yourself, have fun. And
that's like, be yourself may be actually the most like

(01:07:32):
distilled down thing, and I think we just don't do
that enough, Like be who you are like and it's
a cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason, because
if you're not who you are, like, everyone's going.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
To see it, especially if you're on camera, especially.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
If you're on camera. And I do think that, Like
one of the things that Alex and I try and
do is like we are who we are. We know,
we know who each other are, and we trust each other,
but the most important thing is like we ourselves.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Lastly, is there anything you want to shout out? Anything
coming up that we can be on the lookout for,
excited about.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
I mean, tune into the deal. You know. We're uh,
we've got some amazing episodes coming up. We have a
great time. Wherever you get your podcasts, YouTube, Bloomberg dot com.
You can't escape us.