August 26, 2025 • 40 mins
This one’s totally gnarly.
Let us introduce you to Brooke Johnson, the first woman to skateboard across the United States. On today’s episode of The GIST of It, co-host Ellen Hyslop sits down with Johnson to discuss her 3,266-mile journey, and Johnson’s efforts to raise $50K for spinal cord injury research in honor of her late stepfather along the way. Grab your tissues, strap on your helmet, and get ready to feel inspired.
Show notes:
The GIST’s Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide to Fantasy Football
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Let us introduce you to Brooke Johnson, the first woman to skateboard across the United States. On today’s episode of The GIST of It, co-host Ellen Hyslop sits down with Johnson to discuss her 3,266-mile journey, and Johnson’s efforts to raise $50K for spinal cord injury research in honor of her late stepfather along the way. Grab your tissues, strap on your helmet, and get ready to feel inspired.
Show notes:
The GIST’s Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide to Fantasy Football
Subscribe to The GIST
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link
🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up, just sirs, Welcome or welcome back to another
episode of The Gist of It. Today is Tuesday, August
twenty sixth. We're your co hosts. I'm Ellen Hyslop and
I'm Steph Rots and we have a little bit of
a different episode today for everyone because today we are
channeling our inner April Levine and we are talking about skateboarding,
(00:28):
and before we get into skateboarding real quick and what
we're going to talk about today because it's such a
cool story, I do just want to highlight that Steph
did when we were in the seventh grade really personify
Avril Levine. I think that there was a period of
time when we were that age stuff where I think
that you wore ties, yeah, almost every single day to
(00:49):
school and your eyeliner waterline, baby, oh that waterline eyeliner.
It was unmatched by anything else. You were Avril personaly, dude.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you. Yes, I had the study belts, the studed bracelets,
the tank tops obviously not at school because that wasn't
allowed back in the day.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But you had the thicker change tops though too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, you know, the T shirts. Yeah. I tried to really,
I tried my best to be her. Convinced my mom
to let me paint my room red, and it was
like red and black for a Levine.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I remember that bedroom.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Mm hmmm, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I just love you had so many eras and you
were just so you and you were so unapologetic. I
remember being like that girl. She's only thirteen, but she
knows who she is or who she.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Wants to be in this very moment in time.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
The transition between Emily Strange, I think to Avril Levine
needs to be studied.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That was quite natural. I would say, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I think that there's probably a lot of girlies out
there who went from Emily Strange to Avri Levine.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Put your hands up, folks, Yeah you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Stuff is here with you. And So the reason why
we're talking about skateboarding is because I had the opportunity
to sit down with Brooke Johnson yesterday. So on Monday,
who at twenty nine years old, recently became the first
woman to skateboard across the US. She made a three
two hundred and sixty six mile journey in honor of
(02:14):
her late stepfather, and she raised over fifty thousand dollars
for spinal cord injury research along the way. And I
remember Steff seeing her story when she was at the
end of her journey, so she would have just been
coming into New York on social media and sending it
to our team and being like, oh my gosh, sorry,
(02:35):
what is happening right now? We need to find a
way to get those girl on the podcast because it's
just such a badass thing to do, and to do
it all for spinal cord injury research feels amazing. And
she had so many great stories. And I will say too,
she's such a skater girl. This is her first ever podcast,
and you could tell the vibes were so surfer skater.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's not punk to say or punk Quotavri Lavin.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
No stop. So we talk about skateboarding. She's skateboarded for
literally one hundred and nineteen days living out of a van.
We talked about her team. We of course have our
new Sports Girlies Guide to Travel and so we had
to talk to her about what she brought on her journey.
But I think the biggest thing is her inspiration and
(03:22):
the lessons that she learned along the way. And there
were some really interesting bits of i'd say life lessons
but also lessons for women period that I really enjoyed
that I feel like we don't always get from pro
athletes and that we don't always get from more more
run of the mill sports for lack of a better term,
(03:43):
or popular sports in comparison. So that was really cool
to have a different type of conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Can you rewind for a second, what's the travel thing
you were talking about of the distory?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So we're doing a Sports Girlies Guide to Travel. It's
a new social series that we're starting. So we're doing
it basically because we travel so much as a team.
At the Gist and me, we go to some of
the best sports destinations across North America, and as our
team was chatting about it, we were like, hey, we
have so much content from all of these trips, but
(04:11):
also be we really do explore all the cities that
we go to, and we do have lists of things
to do, what to see, where to eat, what sports
to go check out, and so we're making basically our
own mini travel blogs on social beaturing our team, which
I think is so fun.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Being a sport fan is such a great way to
travel too, because it's instant things that you can do
while you're in that place. Oh, I'm going to so
and so we're gonna see if I can catch an
NBA game or w game. Yeah, it's really that's a
really great idea.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I love that. Thank you so much. Our team is
so smart. It was their amazing idea and I'm so
excited about it. First things first, though, and speaking of travel,
I do want to call an.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Audawa please, Oh my god, I'm so excited. I don't
know what are you.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
To say, so I want to talk. I think that
there's two things that have been on my mind over
the weekend, and both of them have to be about travel.
So I don't know if you saw this over the weekend, Steph,
but the PGA Championship happened and Tommy Fleetwood, England's very
own won the tournament. So it's the final tournament really
of the PGA season and that was his first ever
(05:17):
tournament win, which everybody was just rooting for him. It
was so exciting he won in Atlanta. People were chanting
like tall me at the end, and I love to
see it. And we can get into how the FedEx
Cup Championship and everything like that works, but it's basically
only the top players at the end of the PGA
season make the PJA Championship, and then there's three different
(05:41):
tournaments and it slowly whittles it down to the top
thirty in the entire world that play in this championship.
There's a massive purse, and so this guy has literally
never won a championship and then arguably won, outside of
the majors, one of the most important and so that
was really cool and really exciting. But the travel part
of his stuff that I found so interesting. So ry
(06:02):
McElroy didn't fare so well in that third tournament. I
think he ended up coming in the like mid twenties
out of thirty. And so he finishes round in Atlanta
and then went, you know what, I think that I
could go over to the US Open, and so then
he literally went two hours later and you see him
watching Novak Djokovic's opening round at the US Open.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Wow, I mean, why not make the most of your time?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah. I was kind of hoping that he would, say,
first fellow UK team mate from the Ryder Cup to
watch him, but he was just kind of like, you
know what, I'm piecing out and I feel like at
the same time, what was so interesting is that Trinity Rodman,
who is dating Ben Shelton, who is a singles and
doubles now doubles tennis player, she was literally in the
(06:52):
Bay Area the night before playing her game at the
largest NWSL game ever, hosted over forty fives and fans
at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Played the night before,
and then made her appearance at the US Open to
support Ben for his career, which is just like this.
There's some probably climate issues in all of this, but
(07:15):
I also think that there's some dedication. What I love
is that they're like, they're athletes, but they're also just
fans and they're athletes, but they're also partners and sposes
and girlfriends and boyfriends just like the rest of us,
and so I love that relatability.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't know, you know what I watched on the weekend?
What Happy Gilmore too? What did you think I forgot
how silly of a movie it was? Because obviously the
first one came out so long ago, and we were
much younger at that time, and I obviously needed to
watch it because I'm a huge Adam Sandler fan, And yeah,
(07:50):
I just thought how silly it was. But as you're
talking about the leveling up to play the specific tournament,
and it brought all of that back to me from
the Happy Gilmore plot, and it's just yeah, it obviously
was a parody on LIV Golf versus PJ.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It was. It was.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It was a fun watch. I would still watch it again,
like I would still recommend.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I was gonna say, are you saying silly because it
was bad. I would just say, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Not really my humor in this day and age. But
I appreciated it. I appreciated it nonetheless.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, you liked mister Deed's Adam Sandler. Maybe not happy
Gomer to Adam Sandler.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I like that basketball movie Adam Sandler came out on
Netflix with recently. Yeah that one.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, okay, that one.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That one anyway, that's our audible.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Just like seeing these people being I don't know, it's
just like celebrity of it that's able to travel around
the world, but then also the like I'm there to
support my friends and I just wanted to take in
sports and this is one of the coolest sporting events ever.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I just love that wrapped up with just travel.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Already.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
As promise, here's Ellen conversation with Brooke Johnson, the first
woman to skateboard across the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And for a little bit of context on Brooke, we
mentioned it already. She recently made history as the first
woman to skateboard across the US. She started in Santa Monica, California, California, Yeah,
and ended in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She's also a red
Bull athlete, which totally makes sense. I feel like Red
Bull for that for sure. And she skated across the
(09:25):
country for Wings for Life, which is a nonprofit spinal
cord research foundation, And we get into it in this
interview why and how she got connected and everything like that.
She is just such an impressive person and woman, and
I think that you'll really enjoy this interview. So without
further ado, I'm passing it off to Brook. Brooke, Welcome
(09:48):
to the GIST event. We are so excited to have
you here.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I've never done one of these intros before, so I
never know if I'm like, thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I feel like that's what everyone says.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You know, what, You're being an amazing job. That was
perfect that's exactly. I feel like what the majority of
our guests say and what I say when I go
on other podcasts. So you're so good Broke, and I
feel yes show No. I feel so honored that we're
your first podcast. That's so exciting. So it has been
ten days since you finish your journey across the United States.
(10:19):
I saw your journey initially on Instagram and I was like,
oh my god, what the hell? This is so cool.
We have to get Broke on the podcast somehow. How
are you feeling today ten days later?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It has been kind of a whirlwind because the media
has been picking it up. But I've just been like
sitting at my friend's apartment on the couch and I'm like, wow,
like all these people are watching it now. This is
kind of crazy. It's so awesome, though, you deserve it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it's been My body's feeling weird. It's like it's
starting to like want more massages now because I've been
pushing it so hard. So I'm like, I've been going
to this foot massage place in Greenpoint. I was there
like three times this weekend.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I'm sure, I'm sure your body is just yelling at
you after everything that you have been through, the amount
of miles that you have skateboarded, could you tell our
audience a little bit more about the inspiration of the trip.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, So, basically, a few years ago, I had this
crazy idea to skateboard across like from La to Mexico.
And I was like, that's great, it's one hundred and
seventy eight miles. I was afraid to run a marathon
at the time, so I was like, this should be
much easier, like right, girl math. Then during that time,
I was like, it would be kind of fun to
(11:39):
skateboard across America, and no one has ever done it.
And I've been following this record very closely to see
who had been touching it at all, and there's been
a few men to do it, but the women were
We've just been like, that's crazy. We won't we we're good.
We have nothing to prove except me. Apparently now I
(12:00):
decided I have something to prove. But my stepdad he
ended up falling and breaking his C five vertebrae, which
made him a complete quadriplegic. And I was living in
New York at the time, so I immediately rushed.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Home and was like, all right, let me be here.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
And so I came up with this idea during that process.
I was like, Hey, how about I raise money for
your recovery by setting this world record? And he was like,
all about it. He's like, oh my gosh, that'd be amazing.
At the time, I was already a content creator and
I had a little bit of an audience, and I
knew exactly how to build out social media. I was like,
(12:41):
I can do this. Let me get some sponsors on
board and let it rip. And so my stepdad was like, heck, yeah,
get me a world record and push me across the
finish line. He was so about it, and about two
and a half weeks later, he ended up passing away
during the recovery process of his spinal cord entry. And
this process is really delicate. Spinal cord injury patients oftentimes
(13:05):
deal with blood clots like poor like blood flow, and
my family, not knowing enough, we lost him during the process,
which was terrifying, and my mom everyone was shaken up.
And then I'm the step kid. So I'm just like
the kid in the corner and no one really assumes
that I have much of emotions, and so I was like, Okay,
(13:28):
I made this promise to Roger. I'm going to keep
it because this is something him and I decided together.
And then about a year later, I set off to
skateboard across America in his honor and raise money for
spinal cord research. So instead of raising money for his recovery,
we ended up donating about fifty five thousand dollars to
(13:49):
Wings for Life, which is incredible and I'm so excited
about it, and we're looking to definitely raise more money
in the future.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh my gosh, congratulations and thank you for sharing that
with us and sharing that journey along the way too
with your family. I was really curious Brooke about the
content creation side of things and the sponsorship side of things.
So you sharing that you were already a content creator
makes so much sense to me because the way that
you were able to tell your story and share your
(14:17):
journey throughout in addition to actually being able to navigate
your entire way across the country was very impressive. So
have you have you always been into content creation in
addition to skateboarding, Like, how did that come up for you?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
That's an amazing question. No, so I started.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I had I got an internship on a YouTube, like
on a Facebook live with Gary Vee and Scooter Braun. Okay,
a few years back, super random.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I called in and was like, Hi, I'm asking for
an internship on the air, Super Random.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Share your shot. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Got the internship and came out here to New York
and worked with Gary's team for about like three weeks.
I was here and I learned so much, and Gary
kept telling me to start a YouTube channel. And I
had just graduated college at this point, and I was like, no,
like I don't. I'm fine, I don't need to start
a YouTube channel, Like what is that?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Genuinely I had no idea about this, like the content
creator space. I was just so confused. I was like,
what would I even do on YouTube? And then I
ended up going to Scooter's office and doing more of
an internship there. And during that time, I met another
set of YouTubers and they were like they called themselves
(15:41):
Yes Theory, and I.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Was like, what's that? That's cool? Uh?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I was like I had no idea, so like completely clueless.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
They recognized me from the Gary podcast and I was
just so confused. They invited me to their house, and
I was like, wait, is this like YouTube money?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
This is what you guys do?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Like saw their house, was completely awestruck and I was like,
maybe I do this like YouTube thing. And so I
just googled one day what do girls do on YouTube? Genuinely,
and these two men come up by kid you not.
It was a video of these two guys who were like, yeah,
(16:19):
so women crochet, they knit, you can do like try
on hauls, you can do makeup.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And I was like, I do none of that.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, It's like what is this? And so.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
My marketing brain, I just studied marketing in college, I
was like, well, there's an open in the market, Like
there's an opening in the market for women doing crazy
cool stuff on the internet, so might as well. And
I just started one day by sneaking into the KSI
Logan Paul Fight because I heard a bunch of YouTubers
we're going to be there, so I figured I should
(16:54):
be where the YouTubers are. I had no idea who
any of them were. I was like, who is that? Like,
I showed up, I snuck in, I made the video,
and that's how my YouTube like career started. Was like
I just thought, if I'm in the room with them,
I can figure out how to be one of them.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Wow. That is so you have lived a life for
how young you are.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I'm like, you have.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Seen things, you have done things, you've experienced things. It's
really really impressive. We have a new segment or a
new series that we've launched at the just recently Brook
which is really a sports girlies guide to travel. And
so I'm so excited to chat with you today because
I feel like you are the perfect sports girly to
help with travel. Considering you just did this across the
(17:38):
entire country, I'm really curious about like how you planned
your route and then also how you planned your packing
list and how you manage all of your gear as well.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Oh man, the packing.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
The packing was just like a night before with my
boyfriend in my living room and I was like, what
do I need?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh my god, that could not be me. That's wild.
What was the main thing? Obviously you had your skateboard
and some of your gear there, but like, what were
the essentials that you ended up packing that you would
also recommend someone who's maybe doing a cross country road trip,
probably not skateboarding trip, but like cross country road trip.
What would be the essentials.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, my biggest essential was my expensive soaps. Oh.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I had to have my gurly soaps, like I love it.
I wasn't wearing makeup for a lot of the trip,
probably all of it. Every day I would not put
makeup on, but I needed to have like my face cream,
my sunscreen, and my soaps because there's something about a
(18:46):
motel soap that makes me so depressed that I'm like,
I am living.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
In a motel right now, Like I can't.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah, So I had my expensive liquids, as my team
called it. Like every it was like my expensive soaps,
my expensive olive oil, and my truf oil and like
just like the things you wouldn't expect to pack, but
they made me. They reminded me of home, and they
just made me feel happy. And so I just packed
(19:14):
the things that made me happy. When it came to close,
I just threw in a bunch of like running shorts
and sports bras and athletic gear and was like we
can make do, Like outfits will come together.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's whatever. But it was mainly all of my expensive liquids,
which is kind of so random, But.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think that's a good hot tip. I think that's
a hot tip travel size things that make you romanticize
your life or feel like a size I guess you
don't have to worry about carry on. You're like, whatever,
let's do this. Yeah. So, how so when you talked
about your team, how many people did this trip with you?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
So total?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
In the van there's four of us including myself, but okay,
many people running the whole team. We had Tara, Seth
and Alex, the videographers, like would switch out a little
bit here and there, and then we had Lloyd, our editor,
who is like the mastermind behind all of these videos,
and then Tara would tell Lloyd what to fix.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Tara became so good at.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Being me on the internet that I'm like, I'm kind
of bad at being me on the internet.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Now. That's so fun. That's really cool that you had
a team around you. I feel like that would have
kept morale up and everybody excited as you were doing
all these things. I have a few quick, kind of
rapid fire questions to close out our conversation today, and
they might not fully end up being rapid fire, but
a few kind of fun ones I think to end it,
(20:41):
who's the most interesting person that you met? Along the
way as you're skateboarding.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I'm sorry. There was a lot. Oh man. There was
a woman who ran.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
This place called the Friendship House that we absolutely loved.
And I had walked up to her door and was like, Hey,
can I have a tour of your house? It looks
really cool. We're in this place called Mansfield, Missouri.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
And she was like, yeah, sure, no problem, Like it's
a Sunday, I have no makeup on, very like, She's like,
but yeah, come in.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
And I was like, in my it was pouring rain
outside and I'm like hey, and she was like, oh
my gosh, like do you need a place to stay tonight?
And it was just Tara and I that weekend in Mansfield,
and she ended up letting us stay not only that
night but the night after, and she cooked.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Us dinner and welcomed us into her home.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
And we were so smelly and so stinky and like
hadn't showered in like five days, and she was so
welcoming of us that it was like I was the
first day of my period two and I was just
down bad, like my cramps hurt, I was tired, and
I just needed a good night's rest. And she was
(21:57):
one of those people that just like in opened her home,
and for me, that's some of them. Like that's interesting
because most people wouldn't even like consider being like come stay.
Like there's been many people who've been like, oh my gosh,
that's really cool, Like good luck, not my problem. Yeah,
but she said come in be a part of my family.
(22:21):
Oh my gosh, we go a special person.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love. That's that's really sweet. Thank you for sharing that.
We know that independence for women hasn't always been necessarily
a thing. We know that the bike, for example, was
such a big thing for women and the nineteen hundreds
to be able to gain some independence. And I really
do feel like skateboarding is a form of sport that
also provides women of all ages and independence to be
(22:46):
able to travel and do different types of things. For
people who might be interested in getting into skateboarding but
don't necessarily know where to start, what's your recommendation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
My recommendation is So the way I got into it
was I was watching I had skated when I was
thirteen a lot, and then I got really good when
I was watching a group of guys do it, and
I was sitting on the sideline and I was like,
I just don't want to be the girl on the
sidelines anymore. Like I can do exactly what they're doing,
(23:19):
and I can probably make it look way prettier, and
so I just like didn't want to be the girl
that sits and watches, And that for me was like
my biggest motivation was like every time I saw myself
sitting and watching men do something, I was like, I
don't want to be the girl that sits, Like let me,
let me get up and try it, and even if
(23:39):
I would fall, I would get back up and do
it again. And when I was teaching women how to
skate over COVID, the number one thing they would do
is they would apologize. They would show up and they
would say, I'm so sorry, I'm not going to be good, right,
And I'm like, why are you apologizing? Of course you're
not going to be good. It's day, Like when have
(24:01):
you ever expected to be good on the first day?
Like that, you have to push your expectations out the window,
and you have to show up without an apology, and
you have to be like, I am so excited to
be here, I'm so excited to start, And that mindset
shift will change the way you look at how you
learn instantly, and so many women are so quick to
(24:29):
say I'm so sorry, I'm not going to be great,
but like, okay, that makes everyone, So leave that out
the door, leave the expectations out the door, and just
start trying. You're gonna fall, it's gonna hurt. There's so
many excuses too. For women who are getting closer to thirty,
(24:49):
they're like, oh, I'm too old for that.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I would never and I'm like get out there, like
life is too short. My stepdad, for the last three
weeks of his life, was a quadriplegic. And for me,
my biggest motivator is understanding my gratitude for movement. I
don't want to be the girl that sits and watches
(25:12):
this when I have the privilege of moving, when I
have the privilege of trying, and it's such a gift
and it can be taken away from you so quickly.
And so there was a moment along the journey where
someone had said to me, thank you so much for
using your body as a voice for our bodies who can't,
(25:33):
and like, for me, that is like peek, use your body,
like go out there and try.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Things that are gonna be hard.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I just there's so many excuses you can make, Like
I could sit here and tell you a thousand excuses
why I shouldn't skateboard across America, like it could happen
right now. But like, if you let fear dictate the
life you want to live, like you're just not gonna
be able to Like you just won't live it live.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, I love that. I love the skateboarding advice into
life advice that was really beautifully said. So thank you,
thank you for sure. No, that's that's so nice, Brooke,
And I think it's really cool to hear kind of
some of your major takeaways as well, because I'm sure
you spent a lot of time by yourself or just
with your team and you're processing all of this as well,
even though it's it's ten days later, and so thank
(26:25):
you so much for spending your time with us on
the gist of it again, I think for myself and
our team, and I know a lot of gisters were
cheering you on as you were doing this, And so
what's next for you? Where can we find you? What's
next on the horizon.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
The next thing on the horizon for me is I'm
looking to train like a shoolin monk for a little
bit cool, really interested in this type of training process.
There's a monastery in China that will allow me to
come out and train with them. So that's like further
(27:04):
down the line, but immediate future. I'm gonna go see
my boyfriend on a tropical island and hang out for
a little bit, very.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Lax, enjoy some massaging, take a meat for yourself. You
deserve it. And congratulations on everything that you've done. So impressive,
really cool. Thank you for joining us, and we hope
that we'll be able to have you on again soon.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I would love that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
What an absolute vibe. I'm so happy that you saw
her on social media and then she gets go on
the pod. What a happy, full circle moment for the gist.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I know, and I just love that it was her
first podcast with us. What a safe space to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Thank you so much, Broock, appreciate you having me here.
It's time for the last segment of the pod, our
personal training Sesh. This is where we would love to
answer your heart ending questions about anything, and we mean
anything in the realm of the sports world.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yes, if you'd like to be featured on a future episode,
and we love you to be featured. You can leave
us a voicemail at one four three seven five six
four five five seven nine that is linked in the
show notes. You could click on that link and then
it will pop up. You can email us at pod
at theisforce dot com, or feel free to message Seph
and I on Instagram. Steph is at Sephanie Rotts and
(28:27):
I am at Ellen at the Gist. Again, we're going
with a theme today because we have been getting so
many comments and dms asking questions about fantasy football ahead
of the NFL season, especially after we announced our content
partnership with the NFL as well, which is really exciting.
We have something fun that we're launching next week with
(28:48):
the NFL. I'm just gonna leave that there.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Can't talk at that.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I can't say it isn't fantasy, so I'll give you that.
We do also on our website have a deep dive
to to see football, so we've linked that in the
show notes. But in the meantime, there are a couple
of key terms that you need to know before you
draft your team that we're going to go through today.
And then I also have like a hot tip on
(29:12):
how to auto draft a really good team and how
to set up an auto draft, because I think one
thing about JI justters we're all busy, and so it's
really hard for us to set aside a time to
actually sit down draft a team spend a couple hours
doing that, and so I have some auto draft tips.
What I'll also say too, is that fantasy might sound
scary for something like for in any sport, like just
(29:34):
picking a fantasy team is scary. I would highly recommend
NFL actually be your first foray into fantasy, and then
you can kind of go into other leagues too. And
the reason why I recommend NFL is fantasy is because
the games really are played for the most part on
Sunday and then Thursday night and Monday night, and so
it makes it so much more easy as a fan
(29:56):
to only check in on your fantasy team and to
only make updates a couple times a week, in comparison
to something like the WNBA or NHL or NBA, where
it feels like you're constantly having to stay on top
of your fantasy team. And so I think that the
NFL is a really great opportunity to get into it,
and there's a lot of fantastic sites where you can
play fantasy.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
But if you're looking for an app to become everything
to you and you're trying to become not addicted to
social media, then would recommend the WNBA because you will
be on that app updating your fantasy team all day
every day. You will be locked and loaded. But circling
back to the NFL, Ellen is the girly to listen
to because she's won fantasy football many times. I've only
(30:39):
actually note, that's a lie, what I thought you won
like twice at least recently.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I won the gist last year. Yes, everyone's like, we
hit the bowie allowed the boss to win, and I
was like, yeah, fucking right, So I won last year.
But famously, Steph like I was never invited to be
a part of Fantasy League as one of the only
girl like as a girl, I was never invited. And
so that part of the reason why they just does
(31:04):
brackets now and this new game that we're going to
be launching is because so often women are never invited
to be part of the office pool, be part of
to be part of the fantasy league. And so when
I was younger, I'd have a bunch of people call
me and ask me like who should be on my
fantasy team? And I was like, wait, how do I
get in this league? And then the first fantasy league
(31:25):
I was actually the gist for last year and I
loved it and I had a blast, and I was like,
oh my god, finally someone's inviting me. And now I say,
all of those fellas who still don't invite me, and
who didn't invite me beforehand, I actually think it's because
they're fucking scared, and they like know that I would
take all of their money.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Didn't your dad take your picks for his work pool
or something?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
So that's a pick em, which we'll get to at
another time, and I love a pick them. I love
a bracket. Brackets really for the postseason. But fantasy is
really where you get a group of your own friends
together and create a league and you all can put
or bragging rights in whatever it is. And fantasy is
really like again, it's it's you pretending like you are
(32:07):
a manager, managing your own team throughout the season, but
instead of just players from one team, you get to
select players from a bunch of different teams that represent
your team. And so because you just really do it
in the groups, I was never invited.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
So there you mentioned the first term that we want
to get into, which is the league itself. So that's
not the NFL and fantasy football. As Ellen said, the
league is the group of friends comrades, so that you're
competing against likely you know that workpool, your friends pool,
maybe if you're lucky enough to be a just member
of the just pool. So that's your league. The second
term and not cool, sorry league league, fantasy fantasy, Sorry, sorry, Bud.
(32:49):
The second roster, that's your team of NFL players. That's
your team.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yes, and they're drafted from the NFL's thirty two teams.
But remember you can grab them from any team. So
you have a couple quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, what
have you. You can pull them from the Patriots, the Chargers,
the forty nine ers, whatever it is. You can grab
them from those teams.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And then the draft, the auto draft that Ellen was mentioning,
but not auto draft always.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
The draft is like what you normally do live. But
we're all busy that I think knowing what to do
in an auto draft is hopeful.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So if it's not auto, it's the process of selecting
your place for a team, and you would set a
part a time for everyone to be online at the
same time, and you would be on the clock just
like you're watching an actual draft in real life, and
you would have to pick your players. But then you
can also set it to auto draft, which Ellen was mentioning.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yes, So generally it's through a snake. So you choose
a number and you go one to twelve and then
twelve to one type thing, depending on how your league
is set up. So that's the most important part. But
generally you don't have Like last year, for example, I
actually had to auto draft because we were recording the podcast.
We were working while they were having phone and so
(34:01):
I looked up, like, okay, how do you set up
the best team that you can during an auto draft?
And so many people will pick a quarterback first in
the first round, in the second round, I actually really
don't think that you should do that. I think that
where you get the most bang for your buck is
in your running backs, and then also in your wide receivers,
(34:23):
but definitely your running back. So in the first or
second rounds I would say, okay, go for your running
backs during that round. Then go for your elite quarterback
after that, And so you really want to think about
the positional priorities that you have. And so instead of quarterback,
I would say running backs and wide receivers. Running Backs
(34:43):
and wide receivers are key for several several rounds. Then
go get your quarterback, then go get your tight end,
and then go get your defense. So just really think
about the running backs at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So when you're thinking about your roster too, I've only
ever done basketball fantasy before, so are there certain point
categories that you want to be thinking about? Because like
in basketball, it's like if they're really good at blocks
and steals, it's like a high point category category. What
is it like an NFL?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, So it really depends on the type of league
that your commissioner sets up, and based off of that
that will, to your point, Steff, change how you're setting
up your team. But for the most part, for most leagues,
you're going to want to go for wide receivers and
pass catching running backs and running backs if you're scoring
(35:31):
format is what they call PPR.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Okay, And so last term I want to throw out
here is line up. So this is the set of
players that you choose to start each week, so, like
Ellwen said, there's only ever really three days a week,
so you would set your lineup for the week. Fantasy
football is more approachable because you don't have to be
constantly adjusting it throughout the week thanks to the NFL schedule.
So you just set who's going to be on quote
(35:55):
unquote your field, right, and then who you're going to
keep on the bench.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, exactly, so, Steph. As much as you're addicted to
the WNBA app, if you're on Yeahoo Fantasy or ESPN
Fantasy tend to be the most popular. You really only
have to dig in on like Thursday, Sundays and then
sometimes Mondays, but for the most part Thursdays and Sundays
and really Sundays.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
And be up to date with who on your team
is injured. Yes, that of mine.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Yes, anyway, I loved it. I feel like it made
me more, if you can believe it, even more into
the NFL crazy and more in tune and watching my
players and athletes, and I feel like I learned a
lot about the individual athletes too. As someone who just
generally likes the NFL, it made me tune in a
bit more I'm so.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Excited to see how are you guys doing it again?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But I haven't been invited to the slack channel yet,
and I'm like, hmmm, because I bowed out for the
WNBA fans because I just could not keep up, and
so that reminds me I need to slack the team
and say hello, let me back into the channel. Knock knock.
They're probably like, no, keep her out. I'll ask for
you to come into stuff. Oh, I'm gonna do. Want
(37:02):
to toss us out there for anyone who wants us
to like be on in part of your fantasy league too. Literally,
message us, I'd love to be a part of more.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You know what, everyone needs a last place person, and
that's me so happy.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
To take that spot.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I think after three years of literally coming in last
place of my Tony NBA fantasy, I just spout out,
I kind of go before.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Happily be the person to.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Tank in your fantasy league, because then you can say, all, listen,
a club last.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
We got hivite Steph again, that's a guaranteed twenty bucks.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm not born to be a sport manager.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
You know, I'm not gonna scout. I'm not that's not
my line of work, right, you're there to enjoy the game.
I'm here for vibes. Steph frings vibes, and you wrote
the vibes in today's episode two Stuf and that Mexsan
today's episode. Thank y'all so much for tuning in. We
will be back in your feed with a new episode
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
This episode was edited by Savannah Held and produced by
Alessandra Puccio and Lauren Tuscala. Again, I'm Steph Rots and
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I'm Ellen Hisslap, and we will chat with you again
on Thursday
What's up, just sirs, Welcome or welcome back to another
episode of The Gist of It. Today is Tuesday, August
twenty sixth. We're your co hosts. I'm Ellen Hyslop and
I'm Steph Rots and we have a little bit of
a different episode today for everyone because today we are
channeling our inner April Levine and we are talking about skateboarding,
(00:28):
and before we get into skateboarding real quick and what
we're going to talk about today because it's such a
cool story, I do just want to highlight that Steph
did when we were in the seventh grade really personify
Avril Levine. I think that there was a period of
time when we were that age stuff where I think
that you wore ties, yeah, almost every single day to
(00:49):
school and your eyeliner waterline, baby, oh that waterline eyeliner.
It was unmatched by anything else. You were Avril personaly, dude.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you. Yes, I had the study belts, the studed bracelets,
the tank tops obviously not at school because that wasn't
allowed back in the day.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But you had the thicker change tops though too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, you know, the T shirts. Yeah. I tried to really,
I tried my best to be her. Convinced my mom
to let me paint my room red, and it was
like red and black for a Levine.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It was perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I remember that bedroom.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Mm hmmm, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I just love you had so many eras and you
were just so you and you were so unapologetic. I
remember being like that girl. She's only thirteen, but she
knows who she is or who she.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Wants to be in this very moment in time.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
The transition between Emily Strange, I think to Avril Levine
needs to be studied.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That was quite natural. I would say, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I think that there's probably a lot of girlies out
there who went from Emily Strange to Avri Levine.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Put your hands up, folks, Yeah you're not alone.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Stuff is here with you. And So the reason why
we're talking about skateboarding is because I had the opportunity
to sit down with Brooke Johnson yesterday. So on Monday,
who at twenty nine years old, recently became the first
woman to skateboard across the US. She made a three
two hundred and sixty six mile journey in honor of
(02:14):
her late stepfather, and she raised over fifty thousand dollars
for spinal cord injury research along the way. And I
remember Steff seeing her story when she was at the
end of her journey, so she would have just been
coming into New York on social media and sending it
to our team and being like, oh my gosh, sorry,
(02:35):
what is happening right now? We need to find a
way to get those girl on the podcast because it's
just such a badass thing to do, and to do
it all for spinal cord injury research feels amazing. And
she had so many great stories. And I will say too,
she's such a skater girl. This is her first ever podcast,
and you could tell the vibes were so surfer skater.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's not punk to say or punk Quotavri Lavin.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
No stop. So we talk about skateboarding. She's skateboarded for
literally one hundred and nineteen days living out of a van.
We talked about her team. We of course have our
new Sports Girlies Guide to Travel and so we had
to talk to her about what she brought on her journey.
But I think the biggest thing is her inspiration and
(03:22):
the lessons that she learned along the way. And there
were some really interesting bits of i'd say life lessons
but also lessons for women period that I really enjoyed
that I feel like we don't always get from pro
athletes and that we don't always get from more more
run of the mill sports for lack of a better term,
(03:43):
or popular sports in comparison. So that was really cool
to have a different type of conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Can you rewind for a second, what's the travel thing
you were talking about of the distory?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So we're doing a Sports Girlies Guide to Travel. It's
a new social series that we're starting. So we're doing
it basically because we travel so much as a team.
At the Gist and me, we go to some of
the best sports destinations across North America, and as our
team was chatting about it, we were like, hey, we
have so much content from all of these trips, but
(04:11):
also be we really do explore all the cities that
we go to, and we do have lists of things
to do, what to see, where to eat, what sports
to go check out, and so we're making basically our
own mini travel blogs on social beaturing our team, which
I think is so fun.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Being a sport fan is such a great way to
travel too, because it's instant things that you can do
while you're in that place. Oh, I'm going to so
and so we're gonna see if I can catch an
NBA game or w game. Yeah, it's really that's a
really great idea.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I love that. Thank you so much. Our team is
so smart. It was their amazing idea and I'm so
excited about it. First things first, though, and speaking of travel,
I do want to call an.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Audawa please, Oh my god, I'm so excited. I don't
know what are you.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
To say, so I want to talk. I think that
there's two things that have been on my mind over
the weekend, and both of them have to be about travel.
So I don't know if you saw this over the weekend, Steph,
but the PGA Championship happened and Tommy Fleetwood, England's very
own won the tournament. So it's the final tournament really
of the PGA season and that was his first ever
(05:17):
tournament win, which everybody was just rooting for him. It
was so exciting he won in Atlanta. People were chanting
like tall me at the end, and I love to
see it. And we can get into how the FedEx
Cup Championship and everything like that works, but it's basically
only the top players at the end of the PGA
season make the PJA Championship, and then there's three different
(05:41):
tournaments and it slowly whittles it down to the top
thirty in the entire world that play in this championship.
There's a massive purse, and so this guy has literally
never won a championship and then arguably won, outside of
the majors, one of the most important and so that
was really cool and really exciting. But the travel part
of his stuff that I found so interesting. So ry
(06:02):
McElroy didn't fare so well in that third tournament. I
think he ended up coming in the like mid twenties
out of thirty. And so he finishes round in Atlanta
and then went, you know what, I think that I
could go over to the US Open, and so then
he literally went two hours later and you see him
watching Novak Djokovic's opening round at the US Open.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Wow, I mean, why not make the most of your time?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah. I was kind of hoping that he would, say,
first fellow UK team mate from the Ryder Cup to
watch him, but he was just kind of like, you
know what, I'm piecing out and I feel like at
the same time, what was so interesting is that Trinity Rodman,
who is dating Ben Shelton, who is a singles and
doubles now doubles tennis player, she was literally in the
(06:52):
Bay Area the night before playing her game at the
largest NWSL game ever, hosted over forty fives and fans
at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Played the night before,
and then made her appearance at the US Open to
support Ben for his career, which is just like this.
There's some probably climate issues in all of this, but
(07:15):
I also think that there's some dedication. What I love
is that they're like, they're athletes, but they're also just
fans and they're athletes, but they're also partners and sposes
and girlfriends and boyfriends just like the rest of us,
and so I love that relatability.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't know, you know what I watched on the weekend?
What Happy Gilmore too? What did you think I forgot
how silly of a movie it was? Because obviously the
first one came out so long ago, and we were
much younger at that time, and I obviously needed to
watch it because I'm a huge Adam Sandler fan, And yeah,
(07:50):
I just thought how silly it was. But as you're
talking about the leveling up to play the specific tournament,
and it brought all of that back to me from
the Happy Gilmore plot, and it's just yeah, it obviously
was a parody on LIV Golf versus PJ.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It was. It was.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It was a fun watch. I would still watch it again,
like I would still recommend.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I was gonna say, are you saying silly because it
was bad. I would just say, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Not really my humor in this day and age. But
I appreciated it. I appreciated it nonetheless.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, you liked mister Deed's Adam Sandler. Maybe not happy
Gomer to Adam Sandler.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I like that basketball movie Adam Sandler came out on
Netflix with recently. Yeah that one.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, okay, that one.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That one anyway, that's our audible.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Just like seeing these people being I don't know, it's
just like celebrity of it that's able to travel around
the world, but then also the like I'm there to
support my friends and I just wanted to take in
sports and this is one of the coolest sporting events ever.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I just love that wrapped up with just travel.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Already.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
As promise, here's Ellen conversation with Brooke Johnson, the first
woman to skateboard across the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And for a little bit of context on Brooke, we
mentioned it already. She recently made history as the first
woman to skateboard across the US. She started in Santa Monica, California, California, Yeah,
and ended in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She's also a red
Bull athlete, which totally makes sense. I feel like Red
Bull for that for sure. And she skated across the
(09:25):
country for Wings for Life, which is a nonprofit spinal
cord research foundation, And we get into it in this
interview why and how she got connected and everything like that.
She is just such an impressive person and woman, and
I think that you'll really enjoy this interview. So without
further ado, I'm passing it off to Brook. Brooke, Welcome
(09:48):
to the GIST event. We are so excited to have
you here.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I've never done one of these intros before, so I
never know if I'm like, thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I feel like that's what everyone says.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
You know, what, You're being an amazing job. That was
perfect that's exactly. I feel like what the majority of
our guests say and what I say when I go
on other podcasts. So you're so good Broke, and I
feel yes show No. I feel so honored that we're
your first podcast. That's so exciting. So it has been
ten days since you finish your journey across the United States.
(10:19):
I saw your journey initially on Instagram and I was like,
oh my god, what the hell? This is so cool.
We have to get Broke on the podcast somehow. How
are you feeling today ten days later?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It has been kind of a whirlwind because the media
has been picking it up. But I've just been like
sitting at my friend's apartment on the couch and I'm like, wow,
like all these people are watching it now. This is
kind of crazy. It's so awesome, though, you deserve it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it's been My body's feeling weird. It's like it's
starting to like want more massages now because I've been
pushing it so hard. So I'm like, I've been going
to this foot massage place in Greenpoint. I was there
like three times this weekend.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I'm sure, I'm sure your body is just yelling at
you after everything that you have been through, the amount
of miles that you have skateboarded, could you tell our
audience a little bit more about the inspiration of the trip.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, So, basically, a few years ago, I had this
crazy idea to skateboard across like from La to Mexico.
And I was like, that's great, it's one hundred and
seventy eight miles. I was afraid to run a marathon
at the time, so I was like, this should be
much easier, like right, girl math. Then during that time,
I was like, it would be kind of fun to
(11:39):
skateboard across America, and no one has ever done it.
And I've been following this record very closely to see
who had been touching it at all, and there's been
a few men to do it, but the women were
We've just been like, that's crazy. We won't we we're good.
We have nothing to prove except me. Apparently now I
(12:00):
decided I have something to prove. But my stepdad he
ended up falling and breaking his C five vertebrae, which
made him a complete quadriplegic. And I was living in
New York at the time, so I immediately rushed.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Home and was like, all right, let me be here.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
And so I came up with this idea during that process.
I was like, Hey, how about I raise money for
your recovery by setting this world record? And he was like,
all about it. He's like, oh my gosh, that'd be amazing.
At the time, I was already a content creator and
I had a little bit of an audience, and I
knew exactly how to build out social media. I was like,
(12:41):
I can do this. Let me get some sponsors on
board and let it rip. And so my stepdad was like, heck, yeah,
get me a world record and push me across the
finish line. He was so about it, and about two
and a half weeks later, he ended up passing away
during the recovery process of his spinal cord entry. And
this process is really delicate. Spinal cord injury patients oftentimes
(13:05):
deal with blood clots like poor like blood flow, and
my family, not knowing enough, we lost him during the process,
which was terrifying, and my mom everyone was shaken up.
And then I'm the step kid. So I'm just like
the kid in the corner and no one really assumes
that I have much of emotions, and so I was like, Okay,
(13:28):
I made this promise to Roger. I'm going to keep
it because this is something him and I decided together.
And then about a year later, I set off to
skateboard across America in his honor and raise money for
spinal cord research. So instead of raising money for his recovery,
we ended up donating about fifty five thousand dollars to
(13:49):
Wings for Life, which is incredible and I'm so excited
about it, and we're looking to definitely raise more money
in the future.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Oh my gosh, congratulations and thank you for sharing that
with us and sharing that journey along the way too
with your family. I was really curious Brooke about the
content creation side of things and the sponsorship side of things.
So you sharing that you were already a content creator
makes so much sense to me because the way that
you were able to tell your story and share your
(14:17):
journey throughout in addition to actually being able to navigate
your entire way across the country was very impressive. So
have you have you always been into content creation in
addition to skateboarding, Like, how did that come up for you?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
That's an amazing question. No, so I started.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I had I got an internship on a YouTube, like
on a Facebook live with Gary Vee and Scooter Braun. Okay,
a few years back, super random.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I called in and was like, Hi, I'm asking for
an internship on the air, Super Random.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Share your shot. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Got the internship and came out here to New York
and worked with Gary's team for about like three weeks.
I was here and I learned so much, and Gary
kept telling me to start a YouTube channel. And I
had just graduated college at this point, and I was like, no,
like I don't. I'm fine, I don't need to start
a YouTube channel, Like what is that?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Genuinely I had no idea about this, like the content
creator space. I was just so confused. I was like,
what would I even do on YouTube? And then I
ended up going to Scooter's office and doing more of
an internship there. And during that time, I met another
set of YouTubers and they were like they called themselves
(15:41):
Yes Theory, and I.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Was like, what's that? That's cool? Uh?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I was like I had no idea, so like completely clueless.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
They recognized me from the Gary podcast and I was
just so confused. They invited me to their house, and
I was like, wait, is this like YouTube money?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
This is what you guys do?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Like saw their house, was completely awestruck and I was like,
maybe I do this like YouTube thing. And so I
just googled one day what do girls do on YouTube? Genuinely,
and these two men come up by kid you not.
It was a video of these two guys who were like, yeah,
(16:19):
so women crochet, they knit, you can do like try
on hauls, you can do makeup.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And I was like, I do none of that.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, It's like what is this? And so.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
My marketing brain, I just studied marketing in college, I
was like, well, there's an open in the market, Like
there's an opening in the market for women doing crazy
cool stuff on the internet, so might as well. And
I just started one day by sneaking into the KSI
Logan Paul Fight because I heard a bunch of YouTubers
we're going to be there, so I figured I should
(16:54):
be where the YouTubers are. I had no idea who
any of them were. I was like, who is that? Like,
I showed up, I snuck in, I made the video,
and that's how my YouTube like career started. Was like
I just thought, if I'm in the room with them,
I can figure out how to be one of them.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Wow. That is so you have lived a life for
how young you are.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I'm like, you have.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Seen things, you have done things, you've experienced things. It's
really really impressive. We have a new segment or a
new series that we've launched at the just recently Brook
which is really a sports girlies guide to travel. And
so I'm so excited to chat with you today because
I feel like you are the perfect sports girly to
help with travel. Considering you just did this across the
(17:38):
entire country, I'm really curious about like how you planned
your route and then also how you planned your packing
list and how you manage all of your gear as well.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Oh man, the packing.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
The packing was just like a night before with my
boyfriend in my living room and I was like, what
do I need?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Oh my god, that could not be me. That's wild.
What was the main thing? Obviously you had your skateboard
and some of your gear there, but like, what were
the essentials that you ended up packing that you would
also recommend someone who's maybe doing a cross country road trip,
probably not skateboarding trip, but like cross country road trip.
What would be the essentials.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, my biggest essential was my expensive soaps. Oh.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I had to have my gurly soaps, like I love it.
I wasn't wearing makeup for a lot of the trip,
probably all of it. Every day I would not put
makeup on, but I needed to have like my face cream,
my sunscreen, and my soaps because there's something about a
(18:46):
motel soap that makes me so depressed that I'm like,
I am living.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
In a motel right now, Like I can't.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah, So I had my expensive liquids, as my team
called it. Like every it was like my expensive soaps,
my expensive olive oil, and my truf oil and like
just like the things you wouldn't expect to pack, but
they made me. They reminded me of home, and they
just made me feel happy. And so I just packed
(19:14):
the things that made me happy. When it came to close,
I just threw in a bunch of like running shorts
and sports bras and athletic gear and was like we
can make do, Like outfits will come together.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's whatever. But it was mainly all of my expensive liquids,
which is kind of so random, But.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think that's a good hot tip. I think that's
a hot tip travel size things that make you romanticize
your life or feel like a size I guess you
don't have to worry about carry on. You're like, whatever,
let's do this. Yeah. So, how so when you talked
about your team, how many people did this trip with you?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
So total?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
In the van there's four of us including myself, but okay,
many people running the whole team. We had Tara, Seth
and Alex, the videographers, like would switch out a little
bit here and there, and then we had Lloyd, our editor,
who is like the mastermind behind all of these videos,
and then Tara would tell Lloyd what to fix.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Tara became so good at.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Being me on the internet that I'm like, I'm kind
of bad at being me on the internet.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Now. That's so fun. That's really cool that you had
a team around you. I feel like that would have
kept morale up and everybody excited as you were doing
all these things. I have a few quick, kind of
rapid fire questions to close out our conversation today, and
they might not fully end up being rapid fire, but
a few kind of fun ones I think to end it,
(20:41):
who's the most interesting person that you met? Along the
way as you're skateboarding.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I'm sorry. There was a lot. Oh man. There was
a woman who ran.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
This place called the Friendship House that we absolutely loved.
And I had walked up to her door and was like, Hey,
can I have a tour of your house? It looks
really cool. We're in this place called Mansfield, Missouri.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
And she was like, yeah, sure, no problem, Like it's
a Sunday, I have no makeup on, very like, She's like,
but yeah, come in.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
And I was like, in my it was pouring rain
outside and I'm like hey, and she was like, oh
my gosh, like do you need a place to stay tonight?
And it was just Tara and I that weekend in Mansfield,
and she ended up letting us stay not only that
night but the night after, and she cooked.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Us dinner and welcomed us into her home.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
And we were so smelly and so stinky and like
hadn't showered in like five days, and she was so
welcoming of us that it was like I was the
first day of my period two and I was just
down bad, like my cramps hurt, I was tired, and
I just needed a good night's rest. And she was
(21:57):
one of those people that just like in opened her home,
and for me, that's some of them. Like that's interesting
because most people wouldn't even like consider being like come stay.
Like there's been many people who've been like, oh my gosh,
that's really cool, Like good luck, not my problem. Yeah,
but she said come in be a part of my family.
(22:21):
Oh my gosh, we go a special person.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love. That's that's really sweet. Thank you for sharing that.
We know that independence for women hasn't always been necessarily
a thing. We know that the bike, for example, was
such a big thing for women and the nineteen hundreds
to be able to gain some independence. And I really
do feel like skateboarding is a form of sport that
also provides women of all ages and independence to be
(22:46):
able to travel and do different types of things. For
people who might be interested in getting into skateboarding but
don't necessarily know where to start, what's your recommendation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
My recommendation is So the way I got into it
was I was watching I had skated when I was
thirteen a lot, and then I got really good when
I was watching a group of guys do it, and
I was sitting on the sideline and I was like,
I just don't want to be the girl on the
sidelines anymore. Like I can do exactly what they're doing,
(23:19):
and I can probably make it look way prettier, and
so I just like didn't want to be the girl
that sits and watches, And that for me was like
my biggest motivation was like every time I saw myself
sitting and watching men do something, I was like, I
don't want to be the girl that sits, Like let me,
let me get up and try it, and even if
(23:39):
I would fall, I would get back up and do
it again. And when I was teaching women how to
skate over COVID, the number one thing they would do
is they would apologize. They would show up and they
would say, I'm so sorry, I'm not going to be good, right,
And I'm like, why are you apologizing? Of course you're
not going to be good. It's day, Like when have
(24:01):
you ever expected to be good on the first day?
Like that, you have to push your expectations out the window,
and you have to show up without an apology, and
you have to be like, I am so excited to
be here, I'm so excited to start, And that mindset
shift will change the way you look at how you
learn instantly, and so many women are so quick to
(24:29):
say I'm so sorry, I'm not going to be great,
but like, okay, that makes everyone, So leave that out
the door, leave the expectations out the door, and just
start trying. You're gonna fall, it's gonna hurt. There's so
many excuses too. For women who are getting closer to thirty,
(24:49):
they're like, oh, I'm too old for that.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I would never and I'm like get out there, like
life is too short. My stepdad, for the last three
weeks of his life, was a quadriplegic. And for me,
my biggest motivator is understanding my gratitude for movement. I
don't want to be the girl that sits and watches
(25:12):
this when I have the privilege of moving, when I
have the privilege of trying, and it's such a gift
and it can be taken away from you so quickly.
And so there was a moment along the journey where
someone had said to me, thank you so much for
using your body as a voice for our bodies who can't,
(25:33):
and like, for me, that is like peek, use your body,
like go out there and try.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Things that are gonna be hard.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I just there's so many excuses you can make, Like
I could sit here and tell you a thousand excuses
why I shouldn't skateboard across America, like it could happen
right now. But like, if you let fear dictate the
life you want to live, like you're just not gonna
be able to Like you just won't live it live.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, I love that. I love the skateboarding advice into
life advice that was really beautifully said. So thank you,
thank you for sure. No, that's that's so nice, Brooke,
And I think it's really cool to hear kind of
some of your major takeaways as well, because I'm sure
you spent a lot of time by yourself or just
with your team and you're processing all of this as well,
even though it's it's ten days later, and so thank
(26:25):
you so much for spending your time with us on
the gist of it again, I think for myself and
our team, and I know a lot of gisters were
cheering you on as you were doing this, And so
what's next for you? Where can we find you? What's
next on the horizon.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
The next thing on the horizon for me is I'm
looking to train like a shoolin monk for a little
bit cool, really interested in this type of training process.
There's a monastery in China that will allow me to
come out and train with them. So that's like further
(27:04):
down the line, but immediate future. I'm gonna go see
my boyfriend on a tropical island and hang out for
a little bit, very.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Lax, enjoy some massaging, take a meat for yourself. You
deserve it. And congratulations on everything that you've done. So impressive,
really cool. Thank you for joining us, and we hope
that we'll be able to have you on again soon.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I would love that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
What an absolute vibe. I'm so happy that you saw
her on social media and then she gets go on
the pod. What a happy, full circle moment for the gist.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I know, and I just love that it was her
first podcast with us. What a safe space to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Thank you so much, Broock, appreciate you having me here.
It's time for the last segment of the pod, our
personal training Sesh. This is where we would love to
answer your heart ending questions about anything, and we mean
anything in the realm of the sports world.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yes, if you'd like to be featured on a future episode,
and we love you to be featured. You can leave
us a voicemail at one four three seven five six
four five five seven nine that is linked in the
show notes. You could click on that link and then
it will pop up. You can email us at pod
at theisforce dot com, or feel free to message Seph
and I on Instagram. Steph is at Sephanie Rotts and
(28:27):
I am at Ellen at the Gist. Again, we're going
with a theme today because we have been getting so
many comments and dms asking questions about fantasy football ahead
of the NFL season, especially after we announced our content
partnership with the NFL as well, which is really exciting.
We have something fun that we're launching next week with
(28:48):
the NFL. I'm just gonna leave that there.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Can't talk at that.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I can't say it isn't fantasy, so I'll give you that.
We do also on our website have a deep dive
to to see football, so we've linked that in the
show notes. But in the meantime, there are a couple
of key terms that you need to know before you
draft your team that we're going to go through today.
And then I also have like a hot tip on
(29:12):
how to auto draft a really good team and how
to set up an auto draft, because I think one
thing about JI justters we're all busy, and so it's
really hard for us to set aside a time to
actually sit down draft a team spend a couple hours
doing that, and so I have some auto draft tips.
What I'll also say too, is that fantasy might sound
scary for something like for in any sport, like just
(29:34):
picking a fantasy team is scary. I would highly recommend
NFL actually be your first foray into fantasy, and then
you can kind of go into other leagues too. And
the reason why I recommend NFL is fantasy is because
the games really are played for the most part on
Sunday and then Thursday night and Monday night, and so
it makes it so much more easy as a fan
(29:56):
to only check in on your fantasy team and to
only make updates a couple times a week, in comparison
to something like the WNBA or NHL or NBA, where
it feels like you're constantly having to stay on top
of your fantasy team. And so I think that the
NFL is a really great opportunity to get into it,
and there's a lot of fantastic sites where you can
play fantasy.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
But if you're looking for an app to become everything
to you and you're trying to become not addicted to
social media, then would recommend the WNBA because you will
be on that app updating your fantasy team all day
every day. You will be locked and loaded. But circling
back to the NFL, Ellen is the girly to listen
to because she's won fantasy football many times. I've only
(30:39):
actually note, that's a lie, what I thought you won
like twice at least recently.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I won the gist last year. Yes, everyone's like, we
hit the bowie allowed the boss to win, and I
was like, yeah, fucking right, So I won last year.
But famously, Steph like I was never invited to be
a part of Fantasy League as one of the only
girl like as a girl, I was never invited. And
so that part of the reason why they just does
(31:04):
brackets now and this new game that we're going to
be launching is because so often women are never invited
to be part of the office pool, be part of
to be part of the fantasy league. And so when
I was younger, I'd have a bunch of people call
me and ask me like who should be on my
fantasy team? And I was like, wait, how do I
get in this league? And then the first fantasy league
(31:25):
I was actually the gist for last year and I
loved it and I had a blast, and I was like,
oh my god, finally someone's inviting me. And now I say,
all of those fellas who still don't invite me, and
who didn't invite me beforehand, I actually think it's because
they're fucking scared, and they like know that I would
take all of their money.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Didn't your dad take your picks for his work pool
or something?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
So that's a pick em, which we'll get to at
another time, and I love a pick them. I love
a bracket. Brackets really for the postseason. But fantasy is
really where you get a group of your own friends
together and create a league and you all can put
or bragging rights in whatever it is. And fantasy is
really like again, it's it's you pretending like you are
(32:07):
a manager, managing your own team throughout the season, but
instead of just players from one team, you get to
select players from a bunch of different teams that represent
your team. And so because you just really do it
in the groups, I was never invited.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
So there you mentioned the first term that we want
to get into, which is the league itself. So that's
not the NFL and fantasy football. As Ellen said, the
league is the group of friends comrades, so that you're
competing against likely you know that workpool, your friends pool,
maybe if you're lucky enough to be a just member
of the just pool. So that's your league. The second
term and not cool, sorry league league, fantasy fantasy, Sorry, sorry, Bud.
(32:49):
The second roster, that's your team of NFL players. That's
your team.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yes, and they're drafted from the NFL's thirty two teams.
But remember you can grab them from any team. So
you have a couple quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, what
have you. You can pull them from the Patriots, the Chargers,
the forty nine ers, whatever it is. You can grab
them from those teams.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And then the draft, the auto draft that Ellen was mentioning,
but not auto draft always.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
The draft is like what you normally do live. But
we're all busy that I think knowing what to do
in an auto draft is hopeful.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So if it's not auto, it's the process of selecting
your place for a team, and you would set a
part a time for everyone to be online at the
same time, and you would be on the clock just
like you're watching an actual draft in real life, and
you would have to pick your players. But then you
can also set it to auto draft, which Ellen was mentioning.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yes, So generally it's through a snake. So you choose
a number and you go one to twelve and then
twelve to one type thing, depending on how your league
is set up. So that's the most important part. But
generally you don't have Like last year, for example, I
actually had to auto draft because we were recording the podcast.
We were working while they were having phone and so
(34:01):
I looked up, like, okay, how do you set up
the best team that you can during an auto draft?
And so many people will pick a quarterback first in
the first round, in the second round, I actually really
don't think that you should do that. I think that
where you get the most bang for your buck is
in your running backs, and then also in your wide receivers,
(34:23):
but definitely your running back. So in the first or
second rounds I would say, okay, go for your running
backs during that round. Then go for your elite quarterback
after that, And so you really want to think about
the positional priorities that you have. And so instead of quarterback,
I would say running backs and wide receivers. Running Backs
(34:43):
and wide receivers are key for several several rounds. Then
go get your quarterback, then go get your tight end,
and then go get your defense. So just really think
about the running backs at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So when you're thinking about your roster too, I've only
ever done basketball fantasy before, so are there certain point
categories that you want to be thinking about? Because like
in basketball, it's like if they're really good at blocks
and steals, it's like a high point category category. What
is it like an NFL?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, So it really depends on the type of league
that your commissioner sets up, and based off of that
that will, to your point, Steff, change how you're setting
up your team. But for the most part, for most leagues,
you're going to want to go for wide receivers and
pass catching running backs and running backs if you're scoring
(35:31):
format is what they call PPR.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Okay, And so last term I want to throw out
here is line up. So this is the set of
players that you choose to start each week, so, like
Ellwen said, there's only ever really three days a week,
so you would set your lineup for the week. Fantasy
football is more approachable because you don't have to be
constantly adjusting it throughout the week thanks to the NFL schedule.
So you just set who's going to be on quote
(35:55):
unquote your field, right, and then who you're going to
keep on the bench.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, exactly, so, Steph. As much as you're addicted to
the WNBA app, if you're on Yeahoo Fantasy or ESPN
Fantasy tend to be the most popular. You really only
have to dig in on like Thursday, Sundays and then
sometimes Mondays, but for the most part Thursdays and Sundays
and really Sundays.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
And be up to date with who on your team
is injured. Yes, that of mine.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Yes, anyway, I loved it. I feel like it made
me more, if you can believe it, even more into
the NFL crazy and more in tune and watching my
players and athletes, and I feel like I learned a
lot about the individual athletes too. As someone who just
generally likes the NFL, it made me tune in a
bit more I'm so.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Excited to see how are you guys doing it again?
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But I haven't been invited to the slack channel yet,
and I'm like, hmmm, because I bowed out for the
WNBA fans because I just could not keep up, and
so that reminds me I need to slack the team
and say hello, let me back into the channel. Knock knock.
They're probably like, no, keep her out. I'll ask for
you to come into stuff. Oh, I'm gonna do. Want
(37:02):
to toss us out there for anyone who wants us
to like be on in part of your fantasy league too. Literally,
message us, I'd love to be a part of more.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You know what, everyone needs a last place person, and
that's me so happy.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
To take that spot.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I think after three years of literally coming in last
place of my Tony NBA fantasy, I just spout out,
I kind of go before.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Happily be the person to.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Tank in your fantasy league, because then you can say, all, listen,
a club last.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
We got hivite Steph again, that's a guaranteed twenty bucks.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm not born to be a sport manager.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
You know, I'm not gonna scout. I'm not that's not
my line of work, right, you're there to enjoy the game.
I'm here for vibes. Steph frings vibes, and you wrote
the vibes in today's episode two Stuf and that Mexsan
today's episode. Thank y'all so much for tuning in. We
will be back in your feed with a new episode
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
This episode was edited by Savannah Held and produced by
Alessandra Puccio and Lauren Tuscala. Again, I'm Steph Rots and
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I'm Ellen Hisslap, and we will chat with you again
on Thursday
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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