Podcast "She Got Game" features women in sports

play sports at any moment time that you are betting on yourself to make the basket to make the pass to defend the shot to make the free throw. A veteran sports reporter Bonnie Bernstein has a new podcast out called She Got Game inspired women inspired by sports. She worked for ESPN and CBS Sports and now she just launched this podcast. Congratulations and welcome. Thank you, Alex. It is such a thrill to be here, especially because the podcast has a huge LA feel to it. We just heard a sound bite from Julie Erman, who's one of the co-founder of Angel City FC and their home openers coming up on Sunday.

And she speaks so powerfully to how what we learn as athletes, all the life skills, the confidence, the teamwork, the leadership, the resilience, how that plays a role in how we achieve career success. And really, that's what she got games all about. What inspires you to start this podcast? I was and Marley, you'll really appreciate this as an athlete growing up. So with the 50th anniversary of Title IX coming up, which of course is the law that's opened so many doors for girls and young women in sports, I want to find a unique way to celebrate that that was relatable in a really broad way. Typically, when we're celebrating athletes, it's because they're winning trophies and championships and medals and ribbons. But the larger message we get from sports is that those life skills, as I mentioned, are critical in career success. And there were some interesting research that came out a couple of years ago that points to 94% of women in C-suites, the COOs, the CEOs all played sports.

And they share that link that what they learned through sports has enabled them to rise and achieve in their professions. So who are some of the people you talk to? Oh, so I mentioned we've got a huge local flavor. So Julie Ehrman, we've got some native Angelinos, Amy Trask, who's the former CEO of the Raiders. To this day, the only woman ever to serve as an NFL CEO. We've got Julie, we've got some Hollywood types. Aisha Tyler, if you ever see Criminal Minds, Fulacke Olofoyeku, who's the star of Bob Hart's Alba Shola, and Danny Garcia, who has done phenomenally well, is the only woman to have an ownership stake in an entire league, the XFL. And she has a heavy presence in the entertainment space.

So it's a lot of folks that people will recognize for thriving in their careers, but didn't know they played sports. And that's the really cool aspect of it. I want to thank you for blazing the trail that you did. It's not easy being a female in this business and then also in the sports world. How far have we come? And what sort of discrimination did you face? Well, I think we all sort of dealt with it. But you don't realize it at the time because when I was first starting to come up in sports, Marla, I prepared myself to not be accepted because there were so few women in sports at the time that I said, and this is a goal that I really started cultivating in my head when I was 12, 13 years old. And I knew that if I wanted to be on the sports industry, I had to tune out all the noise because there were plenty of naysayers who said, you can't, you shouldn't, especially in the football space.

Women shouldn't be talking about football. I heard that more times than I have hair on my head. But I think fast forward to now, it's really encouraging, specific to the sports broadcast industry, how many women are not just sideline reporters, but studio analysts, play by play, covering men's sports. And it's, you know, I still don't think we've even scratched the surface. Yeah. And you mentioned Angel City, which is the women's soccer club or football club, depending on how you want to say it, which are going to be playing where LAFC plays. That's right.

That's tomorrow. It is. What does that moment, you think, mean for Southern California, for women's sports, the expansion of that league and sort of where we're at with women's sports because you still have massive pay disparity issues. Look at like the WNBA versus the NBA. Sure. Well, the, the pay disparities, little by little, are being chipped away at. And I think soccer is probably the biggest example of that because the women's national team had a huge lawsuit that ultimately they won.

And now there's pay equity between the men's and women's national team in soccer. Specific to Angel City, I think what they're doing is unique and really cool for fans to understand because what they're doing to sort of address the pay cap is they're taking one percent of all of the ticket sales and they're creating a pool for the athletes. And if the athletes opt in, allow the club to use the women's name, image and likeness to sell tickets, then they get access to that pool of money. And it's not only great for the players, but it also says to the fans, every time you buy a ticket, you're supporting the players. And so it's, it's great for everybody. Well, you can find her podcast. She got game only on Audible.

I'm hoping maybe to have some interest for Good Day LA as well. She got game is produced by LA based XG Productions and Walks with Lee Productions. Bonnie Bernstein, thank you so much for being here. Marla Alex, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's a great time to pro on. But you're so good at this.

It's really fun and very easy. We'll be right back.

She Got Game, Bonnie Bernstein, podcast