Katie Nolan is a TV personality who just finished covering the Olympics for NBC and Peacock. Katie joins our host John Gonzalez for a wide-ranging conversation that includes the Russian figure skating doping controversy, how we talk about athletes when they struggle with mental health issues, how she recently came to my rescue on Twitter and what’s next for her career.
Clip: Kate Nolan tries figure skating on Peacock
The Olympics are over, but before SI senior writer Stephanie Apstein left Beijing, she reported a rather amusing story. Stephanie spoke to a whole host of Winter Olympians with one surprising thing in common: how much they really hate being cold.
SI Daily Cover: ‘It’s a Necessary Evil of Doing a Snow Sport’
Emma Baccellieri is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated who covers Major League Baseball. She’s also a fan of the Sex and the City reboot. And while MLB is still mired in a lockout, the show And Just Like That took Emma down an entertaining baseball rabbit hole that prompted her to solve an unexpected mystery.
SI Daily Cover: How ‘Sex and the City’ Sent Me Down a Fake Baseball Rabbit Hole
Follow @podcasts_si | @JohnGonzalez
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the Winter Olympics
are over, but before Sports Illustrated senior writer Stephanie Epstein
left Beijing, she reported a rather amusing story. Stephanie spoke
to a whole host of Winter Olympians with one surprising
thing in common, how much they really hate being cold
and later. Emma Bocholari is a staff writer for Sports
(00:26):
Illustrated who covers Major League Baseball. She's also a fan
of the Sex and the City reboot and while MLB
is still mired in a lockout, the Show and Just
like That took Emma down an entertaining baseball rabbit hole
that prompted her to solve an unexpected mystery. But first.
Katie Nolan is a TV personality who just finished covering
(00:46):
the Olympics for NBC and Peacock. Katie joins me for
a wide ranging conversation that includes the Russian figure skating
dope and controversy, how we talk about athletes when they
struggle with mental health issues, how she recently came to
my rescue on Twitter, and what's next for her career.
It's February. I'm your host John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated
(01:09):
and I heart radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. She
was previously with Fox Sports and ESPN. She's a self
(01:31):
described TV lady, fresh off covering the Winter Olympics for
NBC and Peacock. Katie Nolan, Welcome to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Hi,
thank you for having me. Very excited to be here.
You did a lot of things for NBC and Peacock
for the Olympics, and you cut this really fun promo
ahead of the women's figure skating competition where you tweeted
(01:51):
I heard you can fail a drug test and still compete.
So I really thought this sport was for me, which
is saying Katie Nolan, But you actually went figure skating,
and I want people to go and check this out.
It's on your Twitter feed. But as a little tease,
how would you describe your performance? Um? Certainly, breathtaking, Um brave,
I would say, hard hitting, impactful, These are all good adjectives. Um, yeah,
(02:17):
I stink. And to pull the curtain back even further here,
to drop the fifth wall if there was one. Some
bedrooms have those little extra walls, mind us. I had
told my producer that I had played hockey until I
was five years old. He told Ashley Wagner, bronze medal
winning figure skater, that I had been playing hockey since
I was five years old. Now that seems like one
(02:38):
small preposition, but it is a big one in this case.
And so she came into it like, all right, I'm
gonna teach her how to do like a lot. She
could probably do like a single. And then she saw
me step on the ice like a baby deer. Like honestly,
I looked down and I was like, are my skateguards on?
And she was like, no, they're not. Why can't you
stand up? And I was like, this is a good question.
(02:58):
So she taught me like a bay be and look,
I tried to be a good sport about it. There's
a lot of about it. There's a lot of laughing
to cover crying, because I've found that if you laugh
really hard and tears are streaming down your face, people
will feel more comfortable than if you just are crying. Up. Well,
(03:28):
that's figure skating. You guys should tune in to watch
it tonight. It's in primetime. It's gonna look thank you
so much. It's gonna look a lot better than this.
Don't try it just watch it. I laughed, not at
your expense with you in your defense, it's very hard.
Like my wife took me one time. She used to
be I figure to your wife, just big, big old
(03:50):
shout out to your wife. Shout out to her. She
was excellent as a figure skater. She still is, but
she started calling her sweet Lapinski. I like this, you
could get away with that. I don't think she'd let me.
Don't you do that? Yeah, you're on thin ice as
it is nice sing again? So we want one time
for the show that we used to do back in Philly,
And I thought, you know, how hard could it be?
(04:11):
And as it turns out, it's extremely incredibly hard. The
hardest thing I think about figure skating that people don't
realize is the mental component about how like you're supposed
to smile the whole time and act like this is
the best and like, you know, they always say these
two look like they're in love, and then figure skaters
will say, like, yeah, that's the point. We're supposed we're
like actors. If you screw up in the Olympics, especially
in a pairs event, like you fall out of your
(04:33):
first jump, and you know that your Olympic dream, and
your partner's Olympic dream now might be dead because you
fell on your very first jump. You still have to
smile and pretend to be in love with this person
who all you wanna do is go I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry, Like it happened in the Olympics, and
I kept watching the close ups to see if the
(04:54):
woman was whispering in the man's ear, like sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
doing their lips, because that's what I would do. I'd
be I know him the worst. I'm the worst. So
I'm glad that you brought up the performative aspect of
it in the scrutiny because the women's figure skating controversy
that sort of enveloped the Olympics, because there's a positive
test for the Russian skater Camilla Valieva, who had taken
(05:14):
some heart medication and then compete anyway, and she finished
fourth and the cameras were all over her and she's
crying her eyes out, and Katie, she's fifteen years old.
And our colleague Stephanie Epstein wrote a really excellent piece
for s I dot com about this, where she said
the adults basically failed her and you know, Johnny Weir
and Tara Lepinski tried to point out that she was fifteen,
(05:36):
but they were pretty critical of her. And whatever she
did or didn't do in terms of doping is one thing.
But she's fifteen and we're all watching this thing, and
we're all scrutinizing her and her life has turned upside
down for all the world to see in critique, and
it just felt like so much. Well, so, look, a
part of it is that we're starting to see the
humanity of athletes. And so it gets a little as
(05:58):
somebody who started doing this a couple of years ago,
when this became my job, it gets a little dicey
when you start to look around and be like, well,
now wait a second. Fifteen and all the world is
looking at her and she's not even really in control
of the decisions being made, and there's all this pressure,
and what happens to her if she's not We start
looking at it that way instead of being like, well,
she's here to figure skate. Did she figure skate? Did
(06:18):
she do figure skating? Good boo? Yeah, that's what sports
is equipped that's the somebody once pointed out to me,
that's the only conversation sports media was originally equipped to
have is like boo and yeah, And once that happened,
it was like, Oh, that's why it's so hard to
get into the nuance because we all attached so much
of our identity to our team and then feel like
(06:40):
we just have to be like win or lose, win
or look like we hate when there's a tie. Point
is back to this fifteen year old girl. She's already
competing under this cloud of confusion because the country that
is next to her name on your television screen is
not Russia. It's r o C, which is the Russian
Olympic Committee, which is this weird loophole that nobody understands
(07:01):
and nobody really thinks is that much of a punishment.
But yes, at the heart of it, you have a
fifteen year old girl who most likely is not the
one who was like, you know what I think will
really give me the edge If I take medication that
will fin my blood and whatever it does, I don't
know if that's what it does. If you're a doctor,
don't kid, so I don't think that's it either. But
again I'm not a scientist, and so I stay out
of that stuff. But she's fifteen, and there's all this scrutiny. Look,
(07:25):
I know you said, Tara and Johnny, we love them
for their snarks. So we were asking snark artists to
walk through a minefield. And I think they did a
great job. Given what we know about them and how
difficult this is to talk about. They could have I
think we can both agree mess that up a lot.
But uh. The other thing that was really helpful is
(07:45):
that Johnny speaks Russian, which I didn't know. Shout out
to him for that, and afterwards he was able to
translate in real time that her coach wasn't saying. When
she got off the ice, her coach went over her
and was talking to her, and Johnny was like, she's saying,
why did you mess up like that? Why did you
give up? You gave up on you gave up in
the middle, which is even another wildly Like you said,
the adults around this girl have completely failed her. And
(08:07):
it's that and it's the fact that they don't see
it that way. They don't see it as a failure.
They see her as the failure. And so that's sad
and disheartening. And if you hear that, and it hurts
your feelings. That's good. That's a good thing because that
means you know that that's not the way that it
should be, which means that you have to keep saying
(08:27):
that and speaking up for that otherwise it can turn
into that again. I can't imagine how tough this has
been on Camilla, and it makes me angry that the
adults around her weren't able to make better decisions and
guide her and be there for her, because she's the
(08:49):
one now dealing with the consequences and she's just fifteen,
and that's not fair. And here's hoping that there is
someone to put their arms around that young woman. You're
right that as a sports consuming public, and then also
for what we do professionally, we're much better equipped to
do yea and boo, right, Like, this is a much
(09:10):
more complicated situation, and it's not even just that she's fifteen,
and that's where we stumble. All of the mental health
situation is hard for us to discuss and process. And
we saw that at the Olympics two with MICHAELA. Schiffern,
who was one of the best skiers in the world,
was a heavy favorite in several races. She did not
finish on three of those races, and it was like
this brutal case of the hips where you could tell
(09:30):
it was really impacting her. And her post race interviews
Katie were so heartbreaking. I want to play for you
what she said after the third race that she failed
to finish. I don't know, I wasn't going to try
to get to the finish today and like slide my
way down to the finish if I wanted to skid,
just a good run of slalom and okay, I don't know.
(09:53):
I feel like a joke. That's heartbreaking. I mean it
went on for five minutes, Katie, and she was just
like clearly working through some stuff. And on the one hand,
I think this is good because we need to talk
about these conversations more about how people are struggling with
mental health things. On the other hand, I felt awful
watching it for that long because she was she was
breaking down in front of us, and like it felt
(10:13):
voyeuristic and gross, and I didn't know what to do
about it. Can I make you feel better about it?
Can I counterpoint that because MICHAELA. Schiffer and I know
the Olympics did not go the way that she wanted.
If you're not familiar with her. She's like known as
the greatest skier. She's incredibly dominant, gorgeous, uh, it's smart,
she's just like made for Olympics stardom. And she was
potentially going for five gold medals. I think it may
(10:34):
have ended up being six that she tried for and
obviously didn't get um. But she it's not the Olympics
she wanted. But she gained a lifelong fan in me
because after I watched her first race, I went into
it stupid, of course, as I go into most things,
and I went into it like, oh, this is MICHAELA. Schiffern.
I was excited to see her ski because I was like,
this is just gonna be the star of our Olympics.
I want to see her start. You know, it's gonna
(10:56):
start racking them in. So we're gonna watch this first race.
And she skied out after I want to say, in
the sixth gate. Skied out very early, and everybody was
kind of just like what what? And then I see
them go down to their like we have MICHAELA. Schiffer
and live and I was we were in a conference
room and I was like, everybody shut up and turn
it up because I'm like, what the hell do you
(11:17):
say after that? That, to me is the most interesting
moment where I'm like, let's see And what she had
to say was like, so honest. The clip you played
is from the third time, but the very first time.
What I noticed is she starts out trying to do
the like, well, um, you know, and it's I don't know.
Maybe it's something about the fact that her face was
(11:37):
mostly covered and all you see her her eyes, but
I just could feel her being like, try to answer
this properly. I think I just slipped. Uh, I mean
I And then finally she goes makes me second guess,
(11:58):
like the last fifty years everything I I thought I
knew about my own skiing and solemn and and I
feel really bad. And she was being very honest, and
I was like, damn, I appreciated that so much. So
while yes it's heartbreaking, and yes you're worried about people's
(12:21):
mental health, I would say these are struggles that athletes
have always dealt with. They've just dealt with them silently,
or they've been told that discussing them makes them appear weak,
and therefore, whatever that feeling is, they have to shove
that down, and as we've seen, when you shove something down,
it usually doesn't go away. Right. Mass is neither created
(12:42):
nor destroyed. That's science. It pops back up and exactly
like I'm a scientist in a practical way where it
helps me osmosis. So it's just like we're now hearing
them discuss it, which I think means that we're going
to get better at processing it. And I also know
it means we're going to get a generation of athletes
who came up on MICHAELA. Schiffrin and they watched. So
(13:04):
her falling short in this Olympics is just a chapter.
She's not so old that we're not going to see
her again. She has time, and the sooner she can
see it that way, the sooner she can realize. Where
it's all life is is knowing where you're at right now,
so you know where you can go next, instead of
going where did I think I was going to be?
And how do I make sure I get back there?
(13:24):
It's like you can't, but you can go forward to
the next thing. And talking about your mental health is
part of that process. Everyone should be in therapy. You're
probably right about that, and I think you're right that
this is a positive development because now we're getting more
athletes to talk about it. The part where you said
we need to be better at processing it is interesting
and important because it reminds me of what was going
(13:45):
on with Ben Simmons. And Michael Jr. Had tweeted that
the Ben Simmons mental health discussion is not something we're
equipped for as a general sports watching public, which I
thought was right. I thought it was a pretty obvious
not even that hot of a take, not a hot
take at all, right, I just I think a Philadelphian,
which I'm contractually obligated to mention every time that I
talked about anything, I forget, I always say, like with
(14:06):
Ben Simmons, by all means criticized him for what he
did or did not do on the court, but with
the mental health stuff, let's like maybe all fall back
a little bit and try to understand what he's going
through rather than questioning it. Again, not that how to
take all boy, Katie. Apparently it was because everybody came
for me and Mike Goal on Twitter, and a surprising development.
Evidently Twitter is not a place for nuance. I had
(14:27):
heard that it was, so that's very surprising to me unusual. Yeah,
so I'm wondering how we have these conversations about these
difficult topics when we spend so much of our time,
both professionally and personally in a space like Twitter that
like does not allow for this. Well, I mean, I
think that first of all, the hardest thing, which is
(14:48):
always the case, is that even though you're right, even
though John you are correct that these are nuanced conversations
that are very important, it is also correct that Twitter
doesn't do well with nuance. And so if you're going
to want to have those conversations on Twitter, you have
to walk into it with even more patients than you
(15:08):
normally approach that website with. And I'll tell you that's
not easy. So it's one of those things that we
can say over and over it's a conversation we need
to be having. But it doesn't mean that just having
it and having it wrong is beneficial, because having it
wrong is actually more harmful or could cause more harm
than having it right. Just when you feel the urge
(15:28):
to say something about something, just in case, read first,
right before you tweet read something. I do this most times.
I spell check things in fact check my own tweets
before I tweet them, just because I'd be mortified if
I got something wrong. And it's just I hate that
feeling in your stomach when you send a tweet and
someone's like you told on yourself and you're like, oh no, what,
(15:50):
And so just like use the information available to you,
because we get caught in these things of like if
I don't say anything, someone's gonna think that I don't care,
and it's like, yeah, but you do care, So who
cares what that person thinks. Just care, properly, read about it,
inform yourself. And then the most valuable thing on Twitter
that everyone says, never read your app what applies, never
getting your mentions. I think the most valuable thing on
(16:12):
Twitter is you can have a conversation with someone and
you can just be honest. Like I took a lot
of heat too for that retweeting my goal with Junior's tweet,
which is like, yell at my goal a junior, which
I don't want you to do. I love him, but
I retweeted someone's tweet and then people started coming at
me and I'm like, you're gonna tell me that this
isn't because you think this is the easier argument to win.
But it's not because I will reply to you and
(16:34):
I will kill you with my honesty and my sweetness.
I will tell you that I love you and that
this is just my opinion, and I will disarm you
because I'm not here to hurt anybody, and it takes
a lot to do that on Twitter, but it is,
you know, the least I can do. As somebody who
just plays video games all day and works a couple
of times a month, Well, you have a lot going on.
But you you bring something up here that I want
to stop you on and discuss with you because you're
(16:55):
talking about Twitter in a way that like, this is
not how I would imagine most people. You is Twitter,
where you're saying be patient and read first and check
your stuff and what nobody's doing that just to you.
But when you talk about the mentions component, where you
will get into your mentions and talk to people, that's
interesting to me because you're high profile and you have
a lot of people who do come for you and
say crazy stuff. And there's sort of two schools of
(17:16):
thought on that. One is, don't feed the animals, stay
out of your mentions, don't engage. I'm generally in that camp,
and the other is to engage with people. And you
do that a fair amount recently, my wife. You do
it a lot, and sometimes you do it on behalf
of other people. My wife and I escorted her to
NFL Honors. Oh my god, can we just stop and
talk about the dress? She looked amazing. I mean, I
(17:37):
haven't stopped thinking about it since at night. It creeps
into my mind. Of like, remember when Colleen Wolf just
absolutely destroyed the Red Carpet. She just ethered it by
showing up in address that like I wanted to marry
her in that she looked perfect. You have made a
friend for life because of all that. She will love
to hear this, but she did. She looked amazing. And
I escorted her on the Red Carpet, and she tweeted
(17:58):
out a photo of us and our friend Lakisha. And
whenever I'm in a photo with Colleen, invariably like the
reply coverage, which I've been hearing that forever. It's not clever,
but whatever you to name your website that, but I
dismiss it. But then there's some there's a percentage of
people that are like aggressive about things, and I let
(18:18):
those go too, because I feel like they're not worth
engaging you. However, did not let it go. You came
into my mentions to defend me in that space, and
I'm just wondering, like, one, what prompted you to do that,
but also just your general approach with you don't ignore
these people you get in there. Yeah, all right, first
question is why? And thank you by the way, Yeah, no,
no problem, You're welcome. I was waiting for it. No.
(18:40):
The reason that I did that for you, and the
reason that I do it for a lot of people
is because I've been that person who wants to defend myself,
and I've also seen people dig themselves holes by just
rapidly defending themselves on the internet, like go down this
world where they just can't be wrong, and then it
just turns into a thing where everybody judges. Um. So
sometimes when I see something that's easily defended, and usually
(19:03):
with a joke, if I can see an opportunity to
make like a point that makes somebody either go oh
or laugh and go I just got a point, I'll
do that because then you don't have to do that
somebody with a blue check, which what does it matter?
But like somebody that seems to appear to be a
person has come in and defended you. I guess I'm
white knighting you. But mostly it's just like it's me
(19:25):
scratching the itch that I want to, which is defending myself,
but doing it on behalf of someone else. It's kind
of like charity work, if you will, with the only
skill that I have, which is like dunking on people
on the internet. As for my approach to Twitter, I
want to preface this by saying, and I'm sure you'll
edit this part out so it won't even It just
makes the take Hodder. I've been on this website for
(19:47):
a very long time. I've learned about this website in college.
I remember learning about it in digital journalism class and
he was like, this is going to be the next
best thing. He tried to explain hashtags to us in
We were like, what the hell is this stupid website?
But we had to make a Twitter account for class.
Mine was Kane Nolan four because that was my hofster
(20:08):
email at the time. Okay, I thought that there are
three other kne Nolan's. No, it was just like a number.
It was like, I'm never going to use this website,
so let me just use my hofster email, because it's
a hafster thing you have to do. But then my
friends and I started getting into like, oh, it's kind
of fun. And then once your brain starts using Twitter,
you start having Twitter sized thoughts. But so I had
(20:29):
that Twitter account, and then I started a blog and
I switched Kane Nolan for to the name of my blog,
and then it became Katie Nolan, which is today. So
it's the same account. I've had it this whole time.
And I've said this before. I shouldn't admit it, but
I've probably read in my lifetime of my career, eighty
five percent of my mentions. I've very rarely. There's been
(20:50):
days I've taken off because it's been like these are bad. Today,
I said something mean about a man on a team
liked by angry people, and so I'm gonna just like that.
I said anything about Greg Hardy. I was like, cool,
first day off a Twitter in a while. But this
is what I mean, Like, do you have a big
following and you're let me tell you my philosophy. Let
me tell you where I'm at right now, and this
(21:10):
will change by next week. So it's useless. But all
I can tell you is where I'm at right now.
I came to a place over the pandemic where I
was like, just assume, just assume. And this isn't true,
but it helps my frame of mind. Assume everyone on
this website is trying to joke around with you the
way they would with their family. Even when they say
(21:31):
something mean, they're saying something to you. And I mean
this is discluding excluding the people that I just flat
out ignore anyone who says anything about like how I'm
not hot, or how I'm so hot, or how I
want they want to see pictures of my feet, or
how like my teeth are bad. Like those people, I'm
just like bored with them. I'm like your hack, none
of this is interesting. I scroll right past them. That's
a type of desensitized. I don't wish on anyone else,
(21:54):
but it is where I'm at. Those don't bother me
anymore because they can't touch me, because they're not why
I'm here. I'm not here so that some will find
me attractive. I'm here because I like to make people
laugh and teach them stuff. But when somebody says something mean,
I just assume they're not as good at saying things
as somebody who's been using this website for as long
as I have, So maybe they meant this nicely, and
so joke back with them and see what happens. And
(22:16):
when I joke back with them, they're usually like, damn,
you've got a good sense of humor. And then boom,
the whole thing is squashed. And then I can say,
here's why I didn't like the thing you said, and
they go, I could see it that way, and then
a little tiny bit of progress has been made and
I can pretend that some good was put into the world.
You just gotta remember that people are people, and not
everyone's out there trying to hurt you. A lot of
(22:36):
people are they don't deserve your time. But sometimes people
are just clunky. Humans are clunky as hell. That's very true.
I still think that you're using Twitter in a way
that like almost nobody is using Twitter. You're fixing Twitter
in a way that nobody else could possibly. It helped me,
and if it doesn't help you, and my god, there
are people who have life experiences that I can't relate to.
(22:57):
There are people who are getting active harassment. This is
not I'm not talking to you. Please don't think that
I think somebody threatening to attack you you should take
as a joke. Those people don't deserve your time of day.
I think you should block whoever makes you uncomfortable. And
if they go, oh my god, she can't handle it.
She blocked me. They are the ones that are sensitive.
They're the ones that care that they've been blocked. You
(23:18):
just don't want to listen to them. That's self care.
I am probably going to continue to ignore them, but
I will call you in as needed, and just tag
me in if you're We've used up way too much
of your offic because it's your first it's my fault
I'm talking too much. But before we let you go,
what's next? Oh good question, A really good question. I
(23:39):
don't have an answer. Um, I've been pretty honest. I uh.
Things ended at ESPN, and I kind of felt it
was important for me to have some time off to
sort of recenter, because that the hamster wheel of sports
media is you get kind of caught in it and
it starts to feel like the only thing that matters,
and it was defining me as a person, and and
(24:01):
I kind of stepped back, and you know, had like
a minor mental breakdown that luckily I had a boyfriend
here to help me with. But after that, the clarity
was kind of like, what if I just live for
a little. I've been very, very lucky. I don't have
to worry about, like right now, making more money to
continue to live. And so much of life now is
that for so many people. So I know I'm lucky
and blessed and I'm grateful, and it feels selfish for
(24:23):
me to be like, well, then let me hustle and
make It's like, let me just chill for a little,
play video games, hang out with my dog, hang out
with my cool boyfriend, go on the road with him
every now and then, because I love what he does
and I love watching him do it. He's a stand
up comedian. He's the funniest man on earth. And then
there were a couple of days where I was like, damn,
your career's over. You fizzled out, you don't have it.
It's done, You're done. They were right, and then you know,
(24:44):
you kind of deal with that and try to, you know,
process it. Then the Olympics happened. I had so much
fun doing that job, and I'm so glad to hear that,
because I was having a absolute blast and now I
think it's given me a little bit of you know, Okay,
so you like doing that, so now what? And so
(25:05):
there's I've told my agents that they can't call me
for the rest of the week because I want to
chill out from the stress. For you guys don't understand,
the Olympics don't take the weekends off. Okay, they keep going,
and so you've got to keep working, and when you
haven't worked in a while, it's a shock to the system.
So uh, I told them not to contact me for
a week. But apparently there are things to discuss. I
(25:25):
don't know what they are. I don't know what's next.
I know I love doing this and I want to
keep doing it differently, just because like why do it
the same? So I don't know what's next. But I
think I finally know for sure that I'm not done.
So something's next, and I'll let you know what I know.
It's okay not to know what's next. It's great and
sounds very healthy that you're taking some time for you
(25:48):
to enjoy the dog and the boyfriend and the video
games in the whole bit. But I wanted to say
that it was so awesome to see you back out there,
Like you have so many people who love watching you
and hearing you, and I'm one of them. Like going
back to Garbage Time, which I thought was a brilliant show,
and don't make me cry, No, seriously, because I did
a much worse version and dumber version of that in Philly.
(26:10):
And like we used to watch your show all the
time for ideas, and like just to see you back
out there having a good time and enjoying yourself, Like
I'm really glad to hear that you're not done and
we're excited to see what's next. That means the world
to me. Thank you so much. You can find her
at Katie Nolan on Twitter. She will come into your
mentions to defend you. She is indeed a very talented
TV lady, Katie Nolan. I cannot thank you enough. Thank
(26:32):
you for doing this. Thank you. After the Break, Sports
Illustrated senior writer Stephanie Epstein explains how the rest of
us have more in common with Winter Olympians than we thought.
All right, Stephanie, So we began our Olympics coverage with
(26:53):
you telling us about the incredible backstory for now gold
medal speed skater Aaron Jackson, and we end our Olympics
coverage was something different but definitely entertaining. As we record this,
you are still in Beijing for the Winter Games and
the Winter Games, Stephanie, are cold. I did the research
on this fact check true. Lots of ice and snow,
and while the Olympics are over, as people hear this,
(27:13):
for many of our listeners, it is still winter and
it is still cold out there, which is why what
you found in talking to some Winter Olympians makes me
like these athletes even more. It is something so relatable
but so unexpected, Stephanie. Many of these Winter Olympians hate
being cold. They do. Actually, I started recording this story
(27:34):
because I hate being cold, and so I thought like,
there's got to be somebody who doesn't like this either.
It's such a great idea, and you open your story
on this one part, which is very fun, with a
scene from the Lose track and an American name and
this is almost too good to be true, Summer Britcher,
and Summer tells you that when she's at the top
(27:55):
of the course, she's thinking about the race, but she's
also thinking that in forty five seconds, I get to
be warm again. Yeah. Most of these athletes agree that
you can't really feel the cold while you're competing. It's
all the moments before and after, and so they all
kind of look forward to, in her case, that minute
and in a lot of other cases, you know, the
(28:16):
seven seconds or whatever when they can't really feel it. Yeah,
they're just like us. So summer isn't alone. You found
lots and lots of athletes who feel the same way.
Ashley called while it comes into play here she's an
aerial skier. But explain to the listeners how she says
she was tricked and I'm using air quotes here into
competing in a winter sport. Yeah, so when you first start,
(28:37):
I don't know, people have watched aerial skiing and thought,
how on earth do you even start doing that? As
I did. There's a water ramp and they do tricks
into a swimming pool. So we jump into a pool
and summertimes was warm and then and then theres a
couple of jumps on to know. I was like, I
don't know if I could do this. Yeah, you get
snow up your back and it's so cold. I mean,
I love the sports fool much. Be kind of you
(29:00):
to feel like the calls it's like a necessary people
of doing a snow sport, despite the fact that the
snow was mostly man made. It looks brutally cold and Beijing,
what kind of conditions are some of these athletes dealing with?
They are brutal. Alex Bruit was at Ariials the other
night and it was minus eleven fahrenheit. The which are
(29:21):
so strong that they have postponed practices and competitions sometimes
it's it's really cold out there. That sounds absolutely miserable.
As you pointed out in your piece, you likened it.
I loved this part. You likened it to walking your
dog in February and a cold location, and like the
only thing you're really thinking about is I hope the
dog hurries up so we can go inside. That resonates
(29:43):
with me. I have two dogs. I hated walking them
in the cold. But I would imagine for these athletes
like that has to affect performance, right, because the athletes
have to be mentally strong and prepared to begin with,
just so they can get to the physical component of
their sport. Yeah, that's what actually called well was saying
that be kind of dangerous and scary. Actually, if you're
too cold, you're trying to be high performance and you can't.
(30:06):
Like that's also frustrating. You're like, oh my gosh, I
used to do is really difficult tasks and I'm freezing, right,
That's that's annoying. It Also it makes it u scarier
because it can't because if you're cold, you're like you
just want to go like fundle up and go inside
and go into a hole, and that's not a good
mental space do hard trek and then you're like, oh
(30:27):
my gosh, I can't really move the way I need
to be like safe and productive. Yeah, and actually called
Wall also brought up with you that the timing is
so important because these athletes don't just start cold and
then go into their sport. They have to warm up first.
But they don't want to sweat either, because then the
sweat freezes and makes them colder once they actually start
(30:49):
doing their competition. Yeah, it's uh, I just given it
a lot of thought, which I appreciate. Making scare your
socks don't get sweaty Okay, Actually, I think that's one
that's your whole body making sure you don't. It's sweaty
before you get outside. Okay, I don't put on my
layers until right about to go outside or else, like
you get get sweat wet and then definitely freeze, right.
(31:10):
So that's that's been my latest like trick is making
sure that sometimes I overdressed and that that will leave
me to actually get colder than if I'm underdressed. So
it's a lot of trial in her for her over
the years, but she says she thinks she's figured it out.
You spoke with an Australian figure skater named Brendan Carey.
Australia obviously not known for its ice and snow. He
(31:30):
moves to Moscow in twenty nineteen to work with a coach.
He hates the snow. This part is hilarious to tell
people what he does for eight minutes at a time
to feel sunlight. He goes tanning. Uh. He says he
doesn't care about his complexion. He's just desperate for some
UV race. I understand the UV rays. Maybe heaters and
blankets would be a little bit better, though, yeah, I'm
(31:52):
not sure. He seems it seems we're working for him,
though he's still living there. So you mentioned, you know,
the different things that actually had done. One of the
tricks to the Olympians who hate the winter and cold
used to feel warm. Yeah, lots of heated insults, lots
of bootwarmers, handwarmers. There are a lot of sort of
artificial options you can add. And then the other one
is just flailing their limbs wildly hoping the cameras got
(32:15):
on them, trying to warm up. You can sometimes see
the aerialists like flapping their hands around because they're just
trying to get the blood moving. Yeah, you gotta keep
the blood flow and move those feet. Um. I love
all of this. It really resonates for me because as
somebody who grew up in Philadelphias but most of my
time on the East Coast, I hate being cold, and
I live in l A now, Stephanie, and it is
(32:36):
considerably better. So at the very top, you said you
hate being cold too, I'm interested in your feelings in
relationship with the cold. Where do you live in the
States and how do you navigate that? So I live
in New York City, which is not a great choice
if you don't like being cold, but Boston. I am
a Northeasterner, and I believe that the cold builds character
(32:59):
and that you this summer because you endure the winter.
And that is what I tell myself when it is
six degrees and I have to go outside. So reporters
and photographers have to go through all this too. It's
not just the athletes. You're there, you're dealing with all this.
Josh Rosenblatt, our colleague, wrote a newsletter about how the
photographers have to climb these incredibly steep, snowy, icy hills
(33:21):
to get to their shots and then they're skiing down.
I think all of you guys should have hazard pay
tell us what it's been like for you to be
there and cover this, and what it's been like for
some of the other reporters and photographers. Yeah, the photographers
have the hardest gig for sure. I mean truly, they
ski to and from work and if you are not
(33:41):
a good skier, then you should probably get a different job,
which is a crazy thing to say. And they're carrying
all their gear too, so that they definitely win that award.
We are enduring some of it. There's a lot more
outdoor time than I might have hoped. A lot of
the mixed off is where you talk to athletes are outdoors,
so you know, you can wait inside for part of
(34:02):
it in the media work room, but if you want
to do any reporting, like the reason we came to China,
you gotta go outside. So I came equipped with a
lot of handwarmers and toe warmers which you stick to
your socks. I'm a big fan of those. I got
some of those, uh those heating pads that you're supposed
to put on yourself if you have stomach cramps or
a back injury or something. We put those on our
(34:23):
kidneys and go stand outside. So all of that helps
a little bit. I work two hats, which I get
laughed at for, and it's totally worth it. Two hats
is the right number of hats. Uh. So I'm just
pretty pretty much decked out with winter gear. I feel
like the what is it the kid in a Christmas
story who can't put his arms down? That's me. Every
single day you're sewing your mittens to your coach just
(34:43):
to make sure that you have them. Um, you know
you're a consummate professional. I am absolutely in all of you.
You're doing incredible work over there under difficult conditions. How
has the rest of this been for you? I mean,
you're obviously dealing with a lot of work, you're in
a different time zone, you're not getting a lot of sleep,
You're do with the cold. What's the recipe? Like, I mean,
is there time to exercise? Is there any anything fun
(35:05):
that you've done? Or do you just stay in your
room when you're off in sleep and eat food served
by robots? Yeah? Unfortunately it's pretty limited. The most sort
of outdoor exercise I've gotten recently actually get tied into
the cold, was waiting at aerials to talk to athletes.
I was running circles around the parking lot to try
to stay warm. So we're pretty limited there, last one
(35:27):
for you, aside from all these things that are soiling
around that that make your job harder and colder. What
else was memorable about covering these games for you? Is
there a moment or an event or something that sticks
out where you go, oh, man, I'm gonna remember that forever.
I mean, the robot have been very cool. They are not,
i would say, any better than their human counterparts, which
(35:47):
is kind of refreshing. Actually, I would have expected by
now we would be on the verge of being overtaken
by them, so that I would still rather have a
human cheft and a human waiter, but if you see it,
it's very cool to see a robot sid drinks. Well,
you've done Yeoman's work. You have definitely earned a break
upon your return. I am cold just thinking about you
out there doing that reporting, But I will say this,
(36:09):
the interview warmed my heart. Stephanie Epstein has always thank
you for this, Thanks for having me. You can read
Stephanie's piece on SI dot com well linked to it
in our show notes After the Break. Sports Illustrated staff
writer Emma Bachelory cracks a case involving baseball and Sex
(36:29):
in the City. I'm a Bachelory is a staff writer
for Sports Illustrated who covers Major League Baseball. But with
MLB stolen a lockout, Emma found herself filling some of
her free time with a little TV, and what happens
next involves Emma solving a mystery of her own making.
(36:56):
A few weeks ago, I found myself watching one of
my favorite guilty pleasures as of late, the Sex in
the City reboot, And just like that, when something struck
my attention. There was baseball in the background of a scene,
a baseball game that sounded suspiciously real. The character Steve
was watching it when his wife Miranda came in to
tell him that she wanted a divorce. Ye loud letters
(37:20):
of the corners. Sanfrey looks in for the sign and
the pits, and that one is low ball too. He
missed that one as Baker had to pull it out
of the dirt. That sounds like real baseball. That level
of detail looking in for the sign blocking the ball
in the dirt, that doesn't sound like a fake game.
Those are specific, evocative details that made me think of baseball.
(37:43):
It sounded like a real game, even though I wasn't
sure if the names checked out with any box score.
I felt like I had to figure out where it
came from, especially in the middle of a lockout where
there were no real baseball games for me to watch. Instead,
I went down the rabbit hole in search of this
fake one. Gentry looks in for the side and the pitch,
(38:07):
and that one is low ball too. He missed that
one as Baker had to pull it out of the dirt.
I recognized the names. The picture was Gentry, which seemed
like it could be Gary Gentry from the nineteen sixties
and seventies Baker as a catcher. I wasn't sure about.
But Baker, that's so common. I went to Baseball Reference
(38:28):
and started looking for a game that could fit. Surely
Gentry had pitched to a Baker as a catcher at
least once. But I was wrong. Gentry had never pitched
to a Baker, and neither had any other Gentry in
Major League Baseball history. So this wasn't an MLB game.
But I wasn't sure where else to look because it
sounded so clearly like it was one. I went through
(38:49):
some other options. I thought about minor league games or
college games, but I realized that's a fruitless search, so
I should do the next best thing, which is post
about this on Twitter and waiting until someone with an
eye MDB Pro subscription d ms me and says, here's
the contact information for one of the sound mixers. Which
did happen. I took that contact info. I reached out
(39:10):
and thought, this will be easy. Surely this person will
be able to tell me what exactly was going on here.
The sound mixer gets back to me. He confirms that
was fake audio that was made just for the show,
but the sound department didn't make it it had been
outsourced to something called the loop group, which is the
(39:31):
group that puts together all of the sound that loops
in the background of a show or a movie. Perfect.
I thought, I'll go talk to the loop group, but
the next step was asking him who that loop group was,
and he couldn't tell me, because, as it turns out,
the world of loop groups can be kind of secretive.
(39:51):
The first thing that came up when I googled them
was a headline that read the Mafia of the Acting
World Hollywood Secret loop groups from the Hollywood Reporter. Sometimes
they were put together by the network, sometimes by the
producers is sometimes by the sound department, and in this case,
the sound mixer couldn't tell me who the loop group
had been. Production was shut down, everyone was gone, and
(40:13):
he told me that the trail was dead. I kept asking,
sure that there had to be some answer here, but
then he sent me the one line email that should
have shut it all down. Sorry, Emma, It said, the
trail is officially dead. For a normal person that probably
would have been assigned to stop. For me, someone who
is now passionately invested in this, it was a sign
(40:35):
that I had to keep going until I found the answer.
I realized I had to go deeper into the world
of loop groups. I looked at some of the ones
that were less secretive about their work and tried to
figure out how they were usually credited. Sometimes they weren't
credited at all, but sometimes they were, And that was
my opening. In the credits of the Sex in the
(40:55):
City reboot, there had been one line of additional vocal casting.
That term sometimes showed up with loop groups, and it
seemed like it might work here. I went back to
the credits. I checked who was next to additional vocal casting,
and the names were right there, Dan Fink and Bruce Weinen.
(41:15):
Bruce had a LinkedIn profile and he had his email listed.
An hour later, I was on the phone with Bruce. Huh, Hello, Emma, Hi,
how are you. I'm good, thank you. He's been in
the business for more than thirty years. Dan and I
are actors and we bet doing Late Rob in Los Angeles,
(41:36):
the original l A Company, and just kind of had
this looping stuff as a fun, little side hustle. Over
the last seventy eight years. The looping pretty much takes
up all our time now, and this was just one
of the many fake baseball games he's done. He's been
asked to do hockey, football, horse racing, and more, including
(41:58):
soccer in Spanish, although that one he to outsource, and
his work goes way beyond fake sports. As part of
a loop group, he's responsible for all of the background
noise and a show or film, every single show involves this.
Any sound with background noise is going to be added
by a loop group. That means a scene in a
restaurant where you have dinners at another table, you have
(42:18):
the waitresses, you have all of that sound going on
in the background. That's all added in after the fact,
and it's added in by people like Bruce while he
does all of that background noise. One of his favorite
things to do your sports, and he enjoys baseball in particular.
I'm a big sports fans, so I do a lot
of our play by flight stuff. I listened to a
lot of it. I understand the cadence. I go online
(42:43):
and I'll find a game that fits what we're looking for.
I'll listen to it to get the flavor and then
write my own version of it. It was clear from
that little clip of Sex in the City that he
spoke the language the game had sounded like it could
be real. It wasn't us the information, but it was
the cadence, the rhythm he was speaking in. It sounded
(43:03):
like a real broadcast, and that's something he takes pride in.
I thought it was fascinating when I got through email,
and it's oh cool someone like you who obviously knows
sports very well. Our hope is that it sounds real
and authentic. Get the feedback that it did. You know,
that's a big compliment, and that's what we go for,
(43:23):
so that the people who do know and it does
catch their ear won't go what baseball has a long
relationship with being background noise. It's perfect for the radio.
It grew alongside the medium and it shines as something
that keeps time in the background. Here it was explicitly
(43:45):
background noise, but that shared language was common with Bruce
and with me and with Steve Insects in the city
asked to turn down the game. It's fun to put
those games together because it's like, oh, this is this
kind of game, mind life this And as I listened
to him talk about the process, I realized it was
a game that I would like to see. Two. You
(44:11):
can read Emma Bachelori's piece on SI dot com. We'll
link to it in our show notes. Sports Illustrator Weekly
is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
(44:33):
favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated's best stories
and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly was produced by Alex Kappelman, Cooper McKim and
Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior
producer is Dan Bloom. Our executive producers are Scott Brody
and me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider.
(44:56):
Thanks for listening, and if you've stuck around this long,
we leave you with this. But anyway, back to whatever
we were talking to. Stop licking my feet. It's so weird. Sorry,
it's my boyfriend. He's he's here and just now I'm kidding,
it's myrtle h
On this episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly, the Winter Olympics
are over, but before Sports Illustrated senior writer Stephanie Epstein
left Beijing, she reported a rather amusing story. Stephanie spoke
to a whole host of Winter Olympians with one surprising
thing in common, how much they really hate being cold
and later. Emma Bocholari is a staff writer for Sports
(00:26):
Illustrated who covers Major League Baseball. She's also a fan
of the Sex and the City reboot and while MLB
is still mired in a lockout, the Show and Just
like That took Emma down an entertaining baseball rabbit hole
that prompted her to solve an unexpected mystery. But first.
Katie Nolan is a TV personality who just finished covering
(00:46):
the Olympics for NBC and Peacock. Katie joins me for
a wide ranging conversation that includes the Russian figure skating
dope and controversy, how we talk about athletes when they
struggle with mental health issues, how she recently came to
my rescue on Twitter, and what's next for her career.
It's February. I'm your host John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated
(01:09):
and I heart radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. She
was previously with Fox Sports and ESPN. She's a self
(01:31):
described TV lady, fresh off covering the Winter Olympics for
NBC and Peacock. Katie Nolan, Welcome to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Hi,
thank you for having me. Very excited to be here.
You did a lot of things for NBC and Peacock
for the Olympics, and you cut this really fun promo
ahead of the women's figure skating competition where you tweeted
(01:51):
I heard you can fail a drug test and still compete.
So I really thought this sport was for me, which
is saying Katie Nolan, But you actually went figure skating,
and I want people to go and check this out.
It's on your Twitter feed. But as a little tease,
how would you describe your performance? Um? Certainly, breathtaking, Um brave,
I would say, hard hitting, impactful, These are all good adjectives. Um, yeah,
(02:17):
I stink. And to pull the curtain back even further here,
to drop the fifth wall if there was one. Some
bedrooms have those little extra walls, mind us. I had
told my producer that I had played hockey until I
was five years old. He told Ashley Wagner, bronze medal
winning figure skater, that I had been playing hockey since
I was five years old. Now that seems like one
(02:38):
small preposition, but it is a big one in this case.
And so she came into it like, all right, I'm
gonna teach her how to do like a lot. She
could probably do like a single. And then she saw
me step on the ice like a baby deer. Like honestly,
I looked down and I was like, are my skateguards on?
And she was like, no, they're not. Why can't you
stand up? And I was like, this is a good question.
(02:58):
So she taught me like a bay be and look,
I tried to be a good sport about it. There's
a lot of about it. There's a lot of laughing
to cover crying, because I've found that if you laugh
really hard and tears are streaming down your face, people
will feel more comfortable than if you just are crying. Up. Well,
(03:28):
that's figure skating. You guys should tune in to watch
it tonight. It's in primetime. It's gonna look thank you
so much. It's gonna look a lot better than this.
Don't try it just watch it. I laughed, not at
your expense with you in your defense, it's very hard.
Like my wife took me one time. She used to
be I figure to your wife, just big, big old
(03:50):
shout out to your wife. Shout out to her. She
was excellent as a figure skater. She still is, but
she started calling her sweet Lapinski. I like this, you
could get away with that. I don't think she'd let me.
Don't you do that? Yeah, you're on thin ice as
it is nice sing again? So we want one time
for the show that we used to do back in Philly,
And I thought, you know, how hard could it be?
(04:11):
And as it turns out, it's extremely incredibly hard. The
hardest thing I think about figure skating that people don't
realize is the mental component about how like you're supposed
to smile the whole time and act like this is
the best and like, you know, they always say these
two look like they're in love, and then figure skaters
will say, like, yeah, that's the point. We're supposed we're
like actors. If you screw up in the Olympics, especially
in a pairs event, like you fall out of your
(04:33):
first jump, and you know that your Olympic dream, and
your partner's Olympic dream now might be dead because you
fell on your very first jump. You still have to
smile and pretend to be in love with this person
who all you wanna do is go I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry, Like it happened in the Olympics, and
I kept watching the close ups to see if the
(04:54):
woman was whispering in the man's ear, like sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
doing their lips, because that's what I would do. I'd
be I know him the worst. I'm the worst. So
I'm glad that you brought up the performative aspect of
it in the scrutiny because the women's figure skating controversy
that sort of enveloped the Olympics, because there's a positive
test for the Russian skater Camilla Valieva, who had taken
(05:14):
some heart medication and then compete anyway, and she finished
fourth and the cameras were all over her and she's
crying her eyes out, and Katie, she's fifteen years old.
And our colleague Stephanie Epstein wrote a really excellent piece
for s I dot com about this, where she said
the adults basically failed her and you know, Johnny Weir
and Tara Lepinski tried to point out that she was fifteen,
(05:36):
but they were pretty critical of her. And whatever she
did or didn't do in terms of doping is one thing.
But she's fifteen and we're all watching this thing, and
we're all scrutinizing her and her life has turned upside
down for all the world to see in critique, and
it just felt like so much. Well, so, look, a
part of it is that we're starting to see the
humanity of athletes. And so it gets a little as
(05:58):
somebody who started doing this a couple of years ago,
when this became my job, it gets a little dicey
when you start to look around and be like, well,
now wait a second. Fifteen and all the world is
looking at her and she's not even really in control
of the decisions being made, and there's all this pressure,
and what happens to her if she's not We start
looking at it that way instead of being like, well,
she's here to figure skate. Did she figure skate? Did
(06:18):
she do figure skating? Good boo? Yeah, that's what sports
is equipped that's the somebody once pointed out to me,
that's the only conversation sports media was originally equipped to
have is like boo and yeah, And once that happened,
it was like, Oh, that's why it's so hard to
get into the nuance because we all attached so much
of our identity to our team and then feel like
(06:40):
we just have to be like win or lose, win
or look like we hate when there's a tie. Point
is back to this fifteen year old girl. She's already
competing under this cloud of confusion because the country that
is next to her name on your television screen is
not Russia. It's r o C, which is the Russian
Olympic Committee, which is this weird loophole that nobody understands
(07:01):
and nobody really thinks is that much of a punishment.
But yes, at the heart of it, you have a
fifteen year old girl who most likely is not the
one who was like, you know what I think will
really give me the edge If I take medication that
will fin my blood and whatever it does, I don't
know if that's what it does. If you're a doctor,
don't kid, so I don't think that's it either. But
again I'm not a scientist, and so I stay out
of that stuff. But she's fifteen, and there's all this scrutiny. Look,
(07:25):
I know you said, Tara and Johnny, we love them
for their snarks. So we were asking snark artists to
walk through a minefield. And I think they did a
great job. Given what we know about them and how
difficult this is to talk about. They could have I
think we can both agree mess that up a lot.
But uh. The other thing that was really helpful is
(07:45):
that Johnny speaks Russian, which I didn't know. Shout out
to him for that, and afterwards he was able to
translate in real time that her coach wasn't saying. When
she got off the ice, her coach went over her
and was talking to her, and Johnny was like, she's saying,
why did you mess up like that? Why did you
give up? You gave up on you gave up in
the middle, which is even another wildly Like you said,
the adults around this girl have completely failed her. And
(08:07):
it's that and it's the fact that they don't see
it that way. They don't see it as a failure.
They see her as the failure. And so that's sad
and disheartening. And if you hear that, and it hurts
your feelings. That's good. That's a good thing because that
means you know that that's not the way that it
should be, which means that you have to keep saying
(08:27):
that and speaking up for that otherwise it can turn
into that again. I can't imagine how tough this has
been on Camilla, and it makes me angry that the
adults around her weren't able to make better decisions and
guide her and be there for her, because she's the
(08:49):
one now dealing with the consequences and she's just fifteen,
and that's not fair. And here's hoping that there is
someone to put their arms around that young woman. You're
right that as a sports consuming public, and then also
for what we do professionally, we're much better equipped to
do yea and boo, right, Like, this is a much
(09:10):
more complicated situation, and it's not even just that she's fifteen,
and that's where we stumble. All of the mental health
situation is hard for us to discuss and process. And
we saw that at the Olympics two with MICHAELA. Schiffern,
who was one of the best skiers in the world,
was a heavy favorite in several races. She did not
finish on three of those races, and it was like
this brutal case of the hips where you could tell
(09:30):
it was really impacting her. And her post race interviews
Katie were so heartbreaking. I want to play for you
what she said after the third race that she failed
to finish. I don't know, I wasn't going to try
to get to the finish today and like slide my
way down to the finish if I wanted to skid,
just a good run of slalom and okay, I don't know.
(09:53):
I feel like a joke. That's heartbreaking. I mean it
went on for five minutes, Katie, and she was just
like clearly working through some stuff. And on the one hand,
I think this is good because we need to talk
about these conversations more about how people are struggling with
mental health things. On the other hand, I felt awful
watching it for that long because she was she was
breaking down in front of us, and like it felt
(10:13):
voyeuristic and gross, and I didn't know what to do
about it. Can I make you feel better about it?
Can I counterpoint that because MICHAELA. Schiffer and I know
the Olympics did not go the way that she wanted.
If you're not familiar with her. She's like known as
the greatest skier. She's incredibly dominant, gorgeous, uh, it's smart,
she's just like made for Olympics stardom. And she was
potentially going for five gold medals. I think it may
(10:34):
have ended up being six that she tried for and
obviously didn't get um. But she it's not the Olympics
she wanted. But she gained a lifelong fan in me
because after I watched her first race, I went into
it stupid, of course, as I go into most things,
and I went into it like, oh, this is MICHAELA. Schiffern.
I was excited to see her ski because I was like,
this is just gonna be the star of our Olympics.
I want to see her start. You know, it's gonna
(10:56):
start racking them in. So we're gonna watch this first race.
And she skied out after I want to say, in
the sixth gate. Skied out very early, and everybody was
kind of just like what what? And then I see
them go down to their like we have MICHAELA. Schiffer
and live and I was we were in a conference
room and I was like, everybody shut up and turn
it up because I'm like, what the hell do you
(11:17):
say after that? That, to me is the most interesting
moment where I'm like, let's see And what she had
to say was like, so honest. The clip you played
is from the third time, but the very first time.
What I noticed is she starts out trying to do
the like, well, um, you know, and it's I don't know.
Maybe it's something about the fact that her face was
(11:37):
mostly covered and all you see her her eyes, but
I just could feel her being like, try to answer
this properly. I think I just slipped. Uh, I mean
I And then finally she goes makes me second guess,
(11:58):
like the last fifty years everything I I thought I
knew about my own skiing and solemn and and I
feel really bad. And she was being very honest, and
I was like, damn, I appreciated that so much. So
while yes it's heartbreaking, and yes you're worried about people's
(12:21):
mental health, I would say these are struggles that athletes
have always dealt with. They've just dealt with them silently,
or they've been told that discussing them makes them appear weak,
and therefore, whatever that feeling is, they have to shove
that down, and as we've seen, when you shove something down,
it usually doesn't go away. Right. Mass is neither created
(12:42):
nor destroyed. That's science. It pops back up and exactly
like I'm a scientist in a practical way where it
helps me osmosis. So it's just like we're now hearing
them discuss it, which I think means that we're going
to get better at processing it. And I also know
it means we're going to get a generation of athletes
who came up on MICHAELA. Schiffrin and they watched. So
(13:04):
her falling short in this Olympics is just a chapter.
She's not so old that we're not going to see
her again. She has time, and the sooner she can
see it that way, the sooner she can realize. Where
it's all life is is knowing where you're at right now,
so you know where you can go next, instead of
going where did I think I was going to be?
And how do I make sure I get back there?
(13:24):
It's like you can't, but you can go forward to
the next thing. And talking about your mental health is
part of that process. Everyone should be in therapy. You're
probably right about that, and I think you're right that
this is a positive development because now we're getting more
athletes to talk about it. The part where you said
we need to be better at processing it is interesting
and important because it reminds me of what was going
(13:45):
on with Ben Simmons. And Michael Jr. Had tweeted that
the Ben Simmons mental health discussion is not something we're
equipped for as a general sports watching public, which I
thought was right. I thought it was a pretty obvious
not even that hot of a take, not a hot
take at all, right, I just I think a Philadelphian,
which I'm contractually obligated to mention every time that I
talked about anything, I forget, I always say, like with
(14:06):
Ben Simmons, by all means criticized him for what he
did or did not do on the court, but with
the mental health stuff, let's like maybe all fall back
a little bit and try to understand what he's going
through rather than questioning it. Again, not that how to
take all boy, Katie. Apparently it was because everybody came
for me and Mike Goal on Twitter, and a surprising development.
Evidently Twitter is not a place for nuance. I had
(14:27):
heard that it was, so that's very surprising to me unusual. Yeah,
so I'm wondering how we have these conversations about these
difficult topics when we spend so much of our time,
both professionally and personally in a space like Twitter that
like does not allow for this. Well, I mean, I
think that first of all, the hardest thing, which is
(14:48):
always the case, is that even though you're right, even
though John you are correct that these are nuanced conversations
that are very important, it is also correct that Twitter
doesn't do well with nuance. And so if you're going
to want to have those conversations on Twitter, you have
to walk into it with even more patients than you
(15:08):
normally approach that website with. And I'll tell you that's
not easy. So it's one of those things that we
can say over and over it's a conversation we need
to be having. But it doesn't mean that just having
it and having it wrong is beneficial, because having it
wrong is actually more harmful or could cause more harm
than having it right. Just when you feel the urge
(15:28):
to say something about something, just in case, read first,
right before you tweet read something. I do this most times.
I spell check things in fact check my own tweets
before I tweet them, just because I'd be mortified if
I got something wrong. And it's just I hate that
feeling in your stomach when you send a tweet and
someone's like you told on yourself and you're like, oh no, what,
(15:50):
And so just like use the information available to you,
because we get caught in these things of like if
I don't say anything, someone's gonna think that I don't care,
and it's like, yeah, but you do care, So who
cares what that person thinks. Just care, properly, read about it,
inform yourself. And then the most valuable thing on Twitter
that everyone says, never read your app what applies, never
getting your mentions. I think the most valuable thing on
(16:12):
Twitter is you can have a conversation with someone and
you can just be honest. Like I took a lot
of heat too for that retweeting my goal with Junior's tweet,
which is like, yell at my goal a junior, which
I don't want you to do. I love him, but
I retweeted someone's tweet and then people started coming at
me and I'm like, you're gonna tell me that this
isn't because you think this is the easier argument to win.
But it's not because I will reply to you and
(16:34):
I will kill you with my honesty and my sweetness.
I will tell you that I love you and that
this is just my opinion, and I will disarm you
because I'm not here to hurt anybody, and it takes
a lot to do that on Twitter, but it is,
you know, the least I can do. As somebody who
just plays video games all day and works a couple
of times a month, Well, you have a lot going on.
But you you bring something up here that I want
to stop you on and discuss with you because you're
(16:55):
talking about Twitter in a way that like, this is
not how I would imagine most people. You is Twitter,
where you're saying be patient and read first and check
your stuff and what nobody's doing that just to you.
But when you talk about the mentions component, where you
will get into your mentions and talk to people, that's
interesting to me because you're high profile and you have
a lot of people who do come for you and
say crazy stuff. And there's sort of two schools of
(17:16):
thought on that. One is, don't feed the animals, stay
out of your mentions, don't engage. I'm generally in that camp,
and the other is to engage with people. And you
do that a fair amount recently, my wife. You do
it a lot, and sometimes you do it on behalf
of other people. My wife and I escorted her to
NFL Honors. Oh my god, can we just stop and
talk about the dress? She looked amazing. I mean, I
(17:37):
haven't stopped thinking about it since at night. It creeps
into my mind. Of like, remember when Colleen Wolf just
absolutely destroyed the Red Carpet. She just ethered it by
showing up in address that like I wanted to marry
her in that she looked perfect. You have made a
friend for life because of all that. She will love
to hear this, but she did. She looked amazing. And
I escorted her on the Red Carpet, and she tweeted
(17:58):
out a photo of us and our friend Lakisha. And
whenever I'm in a photo with Colleen, invariably like the
reply coverage, which I've been hearing that forever. It's not clever,
but whatever you to name your website that, but I
dismiss it. But then there's some there's a percentage of
people that are like aggressive about things, and I let
(18:18):
those go too, because I feel like they're not worth
engaging you. However, did not let it go. You came
into my mentions to defend me in that space, and
I'm just wondering, like, one, what prompted you to do that,
but also just your general approach with you don't ignore
these people you get in there. Yeah, all right, first
question is why? And thank you by the way, Yeah, no,
no problem, You're welcome. I was waiting for it. No.
(18:40):
The reason that I did that for you, and the
reason that I do it for a lot of people
is because I've been that person who wants to defend myself,
and I've also seen people dig themselves holes by just
rapidly defending themselves on the internet, like go down this
world where they just can't be wrong, and then it
just turns into a thing where everybody judges. Um. So
sometimes when I see something that's easily defended, and usually
(19:03):
with a joke, if I can see an opportunity to
make like a point that makes somebody either go oh
or laugh and go I just got a point, I'll
do that because then you don't have to do that
somebody with a blue check, which what does it matter?
But like somebody that seems to appear to be a
person has come in and defended you. I guess I'm
white knighting you. But mostly it's just like it's me
(19:25):
scratching the itch that I want to, which is defending myself,
but doing it on behalf of someone else. It's kind
of like charity work, if you will, with the only
skill that I have, which is like dunking on people
on the internet. As for my approach to Twitter, I
want to preface this by saying, and I'm sure you'll
edit this part out so it won't even It just
makes the take Hodder. I've been on this website for
(19:47):
a very long time. I've learned about this website in college.
I remember learning about it in digital journalism class and
he was like, this is going to be the next
best thing. He tried to explain hashtags to us in
We were like, what the hell is this stupid website?
But we had to make a Twitter account for class.
Mine was Kane Nolan four because that was my hofster
(20:08):
email at the time. Okay, I thought that there are
three other kne Nolan's. No, it was just like a number.
It was like, I'm never going to use this website,
so let me just use my hofster email, because it's
a hafster thing you have to do. But then my
friends and I started getting into like, oh, it's kind
of fun. And then once your brain starts using Twitter,
you start having Twitter sized thoughts. But so I had
(20:29):
that Twitter account, and then I started a blog and
I switched Kane Nolan for to the name of my blog,
and then it became Katie Nolan, which is today. So
it's the same account. I've had it this whole time.
And I've said this before. I shouldn't admit it, but
I've probably read in my lifetime of my career, eighty
five percent of my mentions. I've very rarely. There's been
(20:50):
days I've taken off because it's been like these are bad. Today,
I said something mean about a man on a team
liked by angry people, and so I'm gonna just like that.
I said anything about Greg Hardy. I was like, cool,
first day off a Twitter in a while. But this
is what I mean, Like, do you have a big
following and you're let me tell you my philosophy. Let
me tell you where I'm at right now, and this
(21:10):
will change by next week. So it's useless. But all
I can tell you is where I'm at right now.
I came to a place over the pandemic where I
was like, just assume, just assume. And this isn't true,
but it helps my frame of mind. Assume everyone on
this website is trying to joke around with you the
way they would with their family. Even when they say
(21:31):
something mean, they're saying something to you. And I mean
this is discluding excluding the people that I just flat
out ignore anyone who says anything about like how I'm
not hot, or how I'm so hot, or how I
want they want to see pictures of my feet, or
how like my teeth are bad. Like those people, I'm
just like bored with them. I'm like your hack, none
of this is interesting. I scroll right past them. That's
a type of desensitized. I don't wish on anyone else,
(21:54):
but it is where I'm at. Those don't bother me
anymore because they can't touch me, because they're not why
I'm here. I'm not here so that some will find
me attractive. I'm here because I like to make people
laugh and teach them stuff. But when somebody says something mean,
I just assume they're not as good at saying things
as somebody who's been using this website for as long
as I have, So maybe they meant this nicely, and
so joke back with them and see what happens. And
(22:16):
when I joke back with them, they're usually like, damn,
you've got a good sense of humor. And then boom,
the whole thing is squashed. And then I can say,
here's why I didn't like the thing you said, and
they go, I could see it that way, and then
a little tiny bit of progress has been made and
I can pretend that some good was put into the world.
You just gotta remember that people are people, and not
everyone's out there trying to hurt you. A lot of
(22:36):
people are they don't deserve your time. But sometimes people
are just clunky. Humans are clunky as hell. That's very true.
I still think that you're using Twitter in a way
that like almost nobody is using Twitter. You're fixing Twitter
in a way that nobody else could possibly. It helped me,
and if it doesn't help you, and my god, there
are people who have life experiences that I can't relate to.
(22:57):
There are people who are getting active harassment. This is
not I'm not talking to you. Please don't think that
I think somebody threatening to attack you you should take
as a joke. Those people don't deserve your time of day.
I think you should block whoever makes you uncomfortable. And
if they go, oh my god, she can't handle it.
She blocked me. They are the ones that are sensitive.
They're the ones that care that they've been blocked. You
(23:18):
just don't want to listen to them. That's self care.
I am probably going to continue to ignore them, but
I will call you in as needed, and just tag
me in if you're We've used up way too much
of your offic because it's your first it's my fault
I'm talking too much. But before we let you go,
what's next? Oh good question, A really good question. I
(23:39):
don't have an answer. Um, I've been pretty honest. I uh.
Things ended at ESPN, and I kind of felt it
was important for me to have some time off to
sort of recenter, because that the hamster wheel of sports
media is you get kind of caught in it and
it starts to feel like the only thing that matters,
and it was defining me as a person, and and
(24:01):
I kind of stepped back, and you know, had like
a minor mental breakdown that luckily I had a boyfriend
here to help me with. But after that, the clarity
was kind of like, what if I just live for
a little. I've been very, very lucky. I don't have
to worry about, like right now, making more money to
continue to live. And so much of life now is
that for so many people. So I know I'm lucky
and blessed and I'm grateful, and it feels selfish for
(24:23):
me to be like, well, then let me hustle and
make It's like, let me just chill for a little,
play video games, hang out with my dog, hang out
with my cool boyfriend, go on the road with him
every now and then, because I love what he does
and I love watching him do it. He's a stand
up comedian. He's the funniest man on earth. And then
there were a couple of days where I was like, damn,
your career's over. You fizzled out, you don't have it.
It's done, You're done. They were right, and then you know,
(24:44):
you kind of deal with that and try to, you know,
process it. Then the Olympics happened. I had so much
fun doing that job, and I'm so glad to hear that,
because I was having a absolute blast and now I
think it's given me a little bit of you know, Okay,
so you like doing that, so now what? And so
(25:05):
there's I've told my agents that they can't call me
for the rest of the week because I want to
chill out from the stress. For you guys don't understand,
the Olympics don't take the weekends off. Okay, they keep going,
and so you've got to keep working, and when you
haven't worked in a while, it's a shock to the system.
So uh, I told them not to contact me for
a week. But apparently there are things to discuss. I
(25:25):
don't know what they are. I don't know what's next.
I know I love doing this and I want to
keep doing it differently, just because like why do it
the same? So I don't know what's next. But I
think I finally know for sure that I'm not done.
So something's next, and I'll let you know what I know.
It's okay not to know what's next. It's great and
sounds very healthy that you're taking some time for you
(25:48):
to enjoy the dog and the boyfriend and the video
games in the whole bit. But I wanted to say
that it was so awesome to see you back out there,
Like you have so many people who love watching you
and hearing you, and I'm one of them. Like going
back to Garbage Time, which I thought was a brilliant show,
and don't make me cry, No, seriously, because I did
a much worse version and dumber version of that in Philly.
(26:10):
And like we used to watch your show all the
time for ideas, and like just to see you back
out there having a good time and enjoying yourself, Like
I'm really glad to hear that you're not done and
we're excited to see what's next. That means the world
to me. Thank you so much. You can find her
at Katie Nolan on Twitter. She will come into your
mentions to defend you. She is indeed a very talented
TV lady, Katie Nolan. I cannot thank you enough. Thank
(26:32):
you for doing this. Thank you. After the Break, Sports
Illustrated senior writer Stephanie Epstein explains how the rest of
us have more in common with Winter Olympians than we thought.
All right, Stephanie, So we began our Olympics coverage with
(26:53):
you telling us about the incredible backstory for now gold
medal speed skater Aaron Jackson, and we end our Olympics
coverage was something different but definitely entertaining. As we record this,
you are still in Beijing for the Winter Games and
the Winter Games, Stephanie, are cold. I did the research
on this fact check true. Lots of ice and snow,
and while the Olympics are over, as people hear this,
(27:13):
for many of our listeners, it is still winter and
it is still cold out there, which is why what
you found in talking to some Winter Olympians makes me
like these athletes even more. It is something so relatable
but so unexpected, Stephanie. Many of these Winter Olympians hate
being cold. They do. Actually, I started recording this story
(27:34):
because I hate being cold, and so I thought like,
there's got to be somebody who doesn't like this either.
It's such a great idea, and you open your story
on this one part, which is very fun, with a
scene from the Lose track and an American name and
this is almost too good to be true, Summer Britcher,
and Summer tells you that when she's at the top
(27:55):
of the course, she's thinking about the race, but she's
also thinking that in forty five seconds, I get to
be warm again. Yeah. Most of these athletes agree that
you can't really feel the cold while you're competing. It's
all the moments before and after, and so they all
kind of look forward to, in her case, that minute
and in a lot of other cases, you know, the
(28:16):
seven seconds or whatever when they can't really feel it. Yeah,
they're just like us. So summer isn't alone. You found
lots and lots of athletes who feel the same way.
Ashley called while it comes into play here she's an
aerial skier. But explain to the listeners how she says
she was tricked and I'm using air quotes here into
competing in a winter sport. Yeah, so when you first start,
(28:37):
I don't know, people have watched aerial skiing and thought,
how on earth do you even start doing that? As
I did. There's a water ramp and they do tricks
into a swimming pool. So we jump into a pool
and summertimes was warm and then and then theres a
couple of jumps on to know. I was like, I
don't know if I could do this. Yeah, you get
snow up your back and it's so cold. I mean,
I love the sports fool much. Be kind of you
(29:00):
to feel like the calls it's like a necessary people
of doing a snow sport, despite the fact that the
snow was mostly man made. It looks brutally cold and Beijing,
what kind of conditions are some of these athletes dealing with?
They are brutal. Alex Bruit was at Ariials the other
night and it was minus eleven fahrenheit. The which are
(29:21):
so strong that they have postponed practices and competitions sometimes
it's it's really cold out there. That sounds absolutely miserable.
As you pointed out in your piece, you likened it.
I loved this part. You likened it to walking your
dog in February and a cold location, and like the
only thing you're really thinking about is I hope the
dog hurries up so we can go inside. That resonates
(29:43):
with me. I have two dogs. I hated walking them
in the cold. But I would imagine for these athletes
like that has to affect performance, right, because the athletes
have to be mentally strong and prepared to begin with,
just so they can get to the physical component of
their sport. Yeah, that's what actually called well was saying
that be kind of dangerous and scary. Actually, if you're
too cold, you're trying to be high performance and you can't.
(30:06):
Like that's also frustrating. You're like, oh my gosh, I
used to do is really difficult tasks and I'm freezing, right,
That's that's annoying. It Also it makes it u scarier
because it can't because if you're cold, you're like you
just want to go like fundle up and go inside
and go into a hole, and that's not a good
mental space do hard trek and then you're like, oh
(30:27):
my gosh, I can't really move the way I need
to be like safe and productive. Yeah, and actually called
Wall also brought up with you that the timing is
so important because these athletes don't just start cold and
then go into their sport. They have to warm up first.
But they don't want to sweat either, because then the
sweat freezes and makes them colder once they actually start
(30:49):
doing their competition. Yeah, it's uh, I just given it
a lot of thought, which I appreciate. Making scare your
socks don't get sweaty Okay, Actually, I think that's one
that's your whole body making sure you don't. It's sweaty
before you get outside. Okay, I don't put on my
layers until right about to go outside or else, like
you get get sweat wet and then definitely freeze, right.
(31:10):
So that's that's been my latest like trick is making
sure that sometimes I overdressed and that that will leave
me to actually get colder than if I'm underdressed. So
it's a lot of trial in her for her over
the years, but she says she thinks she's figured it out.
You spoke with an Australian figure skater named Brendan Carey.
Australia obviously not known for its ice and snow. He
(31:30):
moves to Moscow in twenty nineteen to work with a coach.
He hates the snow. This part is hilarious to tell
people what he does for eight minutes at a time
to feel sunlight. He goes tanning. Uh. He says he
doesn't care about his complexion. He's just desperate for some
UV race. I understand the UV rays. Maybe heaters and
blankets would be a little bit better, though, yeah, I'm
(31:52):
not sure. He seems it seems we're working for him,
though he's still living there. So you mentioned, you know,
the different things that actually had done. One of the
tricks to the Olympians who hate the winter and cold
used to feel warm. Yeah, lots of heated insults, lots
of bootwarmers, handwarmers. There are a lot of sort of
artificial options you can add. And then the other one
is just flailing their limbs wildly hoping the cameras got
(32:15):
on them, trying to warm up. You can sometimes see
the aerialists like flapping their hands around because they're just
trying to get the blood moving. Yeah, you gotta keep
the blood flow and move those feet. Um. I love
all of this. It really resonates for me because as
somebody who grew up in Philadelphias but most of my
time on the East Coast, I hate being cold, and
I live in l A now, Stephanie, and it is
(32:36):
considerably better. So at the very top, you said you
hate being cold too, I'm interested in your feelings in
relationship with the cold. Where do you live in the
States and how do you navigate that? So I live
in New York City, which is not a great choice
if you don't like being cold, but Boston. I am
a Northeasterner, and I believe that the cold builds character
(32:59):
and that you this summer because you endure the winter.
And that is what I tell myself when it is
six degrees and I have to go outside. So reporters
and photographers have to go through all this too. It's
not just the athletes. You're there, you're dealing with all this.
Josh Rosenblatt, our colleague, wrote a newsletter about how the
photographers have to climb these incredibly steep, snowy, icy hills
(33:21):
to get to their shots and then they're skiing down.
I think all of you guys should have hazard pay
tell us what it's been like for you to be
there and cover this, and what it's been like for
some of the other reporters and photographers. Yeah, the photographers
have the hardest gig for sure. I mean truly, they
ski to and from work and if you are not
(33:41):
a good skier, then you should probably get a different job,
which is a crazy thing to say. And they're carrying
all their gear too, so that they definitely win that award.
We are enduring some of it. There's a lot more
outdoor time than I might have hoped. A lot of
the mixed off is where you talk to athletes are outdoors,
so you know, you can wait inside for part of
(34:02):
it in the media work room, but if you want
to do any reporting, like the reason we came to China,
you gotta go outside. So I came equipped with a
lot of handwarmers and toe warmers which you stick to
your socks. I'm a big fan of those. I got
some of those, uh those heating pads that you're supposed
to put on yourself if you have stomach cramps or
a back injury or something. We put those on our
(34:23):
kidneys and go stand outside. So all of that helps
a little bit. I work two hats, which I get
laughed at for, and it's totally worth it. Two hats
is the right number of hats. Uh. So I'm just
pretty pretty much decked out with winter gear. I feel
like the what is it the kid in a Christmas
story who can't put his arms down? That's me. Every
single day you're sewing your mittens to your coach just
(34:43):
to make sure that you have them. Um, you know
you're a consummate professional. I am absolutely in all of you.
You're doing incredible work over there under difficult conditions. How
has the rest of this been for you? I mean,
you're obviously dealing with a lot of work, you're in
a different time zone, you're not getting a lot of sleep,
You're do with the cold. What's the recipe? Like, I mean,
is there time to exercise? Is there any anything fun
(35:05):
that you've done? Or do you just stay in your
room when you're off in sleep and eat food served
by robots? Yeah? Unfortunately it's pretty limited. The most sort
of outdoor exercise I've gotten recently actually get tied into
the cold, was waiting at aerials to talk to athletes.
I was running circles around the parking lot to try
to stay warm. So we're pretty limited there, last one
(35:27):
for you, aside from all these things that are soiling
around that that make your job harder and colder. What
else was memorable about covering these games for you? Is
there a moment or an event or something that sticks
out where you go, oh, man, I'm gonna remember that forever.
I mean, the robot have been very cool. They are not,
i would say, any better than their human counterparts, which
(35:47):
is kind of refreshing. Actually, I would have expected by
now we would be on the verge of being overtaken
by them, so that I would still rather have a
human cheft and a human waiter, but if you see it,
it's very cool to see a robot sid drinks. Well,
you've done Yeoman's work. You have definitely earned a break
upon your return. I am cold just thinking about you
out there doing that reporting, But I will say this,
(36:09):
the interview warmed my heart. Stephanie Epstein has always thank
you for this, Thanks for having me. You can read
Stephanie's piece on SI dot com well linked to it
in our show notes After the Break. Sports Illustrated staff
writer Emma Bachelory cracks a case involving baseball and Sex
(36:29):
in the City. I'm a Bachelory is a staff writer
for Sports Illustrated who covers Major League Baseball. But with
MLB stolen a lockout, Emma found herself filling some of
her free time with a little TV, and what happens
next involves Emma solving a mystery of her own making.
(36:56):
A few weeks ago, I found myself watching one of
my favorite guilty pleasures as of late, the Sex in
the City reboot, And just like that, when something struck
my attention. There was baseball in the background of a scene,
a baseball game that sounded suspiciously real. The character Steve
was watching it when his wife Miranda came in to
tell him that she wanted a divorce. Ye loud letters
(37:20):
of the corners. Sanfrey looks in for the sign and
the pits, and that one is low ball too. He
missed that one as Baker had to pull it out
of the dirt. That sounds like real baseball. That level
of detail looking in for the sign blocking the ball
in the dirt, that doesn't sound like a fake game.
Those are specific, evocative details that made me think of baseball.
(37:43):
It sounded like a real game, even though I wasn't
sure if the names checked out with any box score.
I felt like I had to figure out where it
came from, especially in the middle of a lockout where
there were no real baseball games for me to watch. Instead,
I went down the rabbit hole in search of this
fake one. Gentry looks in for the side and the pitch,
(38:07):
and that one is low ball too. He missed that
one as Baker had to pull it out of the dirt.
I recognized the names. The picture was Gentry, which seemed
like it could be Gary Gentry from the nineteen sixties
and seventies Baker as a catcher. I wasn't sure about.
But Baker, that's so common. I went to Baseball Reference
(38:28):
and started looking for a game that could fit. Surely
Gentry had pitched to a Baker as a catcher at
least once. But I was wrong. Gentry had never pitched
to a Baker, and neither had any other Gentry in
Major League Baseball history. So this wasn't an MLB game.
But I wasn't sure where else to look because it
sounded so clearly like it was one. I went through
(38:49):
some other options. I thought about minor league games or
college games, but I realized that's a fruitless search, so
I should do the next best thing, which is post
about this on Twitter and waiting until someone with an
eye MDB Pro subscription d ms me and says, here's
the contact information for one of the sound mixers. Which
did happen. I took that contact info. I reached out
(39:10):
and thought, this will be easy. Surely this person will
be able to tell me what exactly was going on here.
The sound mixer gets back to me. He confirms that
was fake audio that was made just for the show,
but the sound department didn't make it it had been
outsourced to something called the loop group, which is the
(39:31):
group that puts together all of the sound that loops
in the background of a show or a movie. Perfect.
I thought, I'll go talk to the loop group, but
the next step was asking him who that loop group was,
and he couldn't tell me, because, as it turns out,
the world of loop groups can be kind of secretive.
(39:51):
The first thing that came up when I googled them
was a headline that read the Mafia of the Acting
World Hollywood Secret loop groups from the Hollywood Reporter. Sometimes
they were put together by the network, sometimes by the
producers is sometimes by the sound department, and in this case,
the sound mixer couldn't tell me who the loop group
had been. Production was shut down, everyone was gone, and
(40:13):
he told me that the trail was dead. I kept asking,
sure that there had to be some answer here, but
then he sent me the one line email that should
have shut it all down. Sorry, Emma, It said, the
trail is officially dead. For a normal person that probably
would have been assigned to stop. For me, someone who
is now passionately invested in this, it was a sign
(40:35):
that I had to keep going until I found the answer.
I realized I had to go deeper into the world
of loop groups. I looked at some of the ones
that were less secretive about their work and tried to
figure out how they were usually credited. Sometimes they weren't
credited at all, but sometimes they were, And that was
my opening. In the credits of the Sex in the
(40:55):
City reboot, there had been one line of additional vocal casting.
That term sometimes showed up with loop groups, and it
seemed like it might work here. I went back to
the credits. I checked who was next to additional vocal casting,
and the names were right there, Dan Fink and Bruce Weinen.
(41:15):
Bruce had a LinkedIn profile and he had his email listed.
An hour later, I was on the phone with Bruce. Huh, Hello, Emma, Hi,
how are you. I'm good, thank you. He's been in
the business for more than thirty years. Dan and I
are actors and we bet doing Late Rob in Los Angeles,
(41:36):
the original l A Company, and just kind of had
this looping stuff as a fun, little side hustle. Over
the last seventy eight years. The looping pretty much takes
up all our time now, and this was just one
of the many fake baseball games he's done. He's been
asked to do hockey, football, horse racing, and more, including
(41:58):
soccer in Spanish, although that one he to outsource, and
his work goes way beyond fake sports. As part of
a loop group, he's responsible for all of the background
noise and a show or film, every single show involves this.
Any sound with background noise is going to be added
by a loop group. That means a scene in a
restaurant where you have dinners at another table, you have
(42:18):
the waitresses, you have all of that sound going on
in the background. That's all added in after the fact,
and it's added in by people like Bruce while he
does all of that background noise. One of his favorite
things to do your sports, and he enjoys baseball in particular.
I'm a big sports fans, so I do a lot
of our play by flight stuff. I listened to a
lot of it. I understand the cadence. I go online
(42:43):
and I'll find a game that fits what we're looking for.
I'll listen to it to get the flavor and then
write my own version of it. It was clear from
that little clip of Sex in the City that he
spoke the language the game had sounded like it could
be real. It wasn't us the information, but it was
the cadence, the rhythm he was speaking in. It sounded
(43:03):
like a real broadcast, and that's something he takes pride in.
I thought it was fascinating when I got through email,
and it's oh cool someone like you who obviously knows
sports very well. Our hope is that it sounds real
and authentic. Get the feedback that it did. You know,
that's a big compliment, and that's what we go for,
(43:23):
so that the people who do know and it does
catch their ear won't go what baseball has a long
relationship with being background noise. It's perfect for the radio.
It grew alongside the medium and it shines as something
that keeps time in the background. Here it was explicitly
(43:45):
background noise, but that shared language was common with Bruce
and with me and with Steve Insects in the city
asked to turn down the game. It's fun to put
those games together because it's like, oh, this is this
kind of game, mind life this And as I listened
to him talk about the process, I realized it was
a game that I would like to see. Two. You
(44:11):
can read Emma Bachelori's piece on SI dot com. We'll
link to it in our show notes. Sports Illustrator Weekly
is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
(44:33):
favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated's best stories
and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly was produced by Alex Kappelman, Cooper McKim and
Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior
producer is Dan Bloom. Our executive producers are Scott Brody
and me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider.
(44:56):
Thanks for listening, and if you've stuck around this long,
we leave you with this. But anyway, back to whatever
we were talking to. Stop licking my feet. It's so weird. Sorry,
it's my boyfriend. He's he's here and just now I'm kidding,
it's myrtle h
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.