Hey pailm Hello Sunshine.
Today on the bright Side, journalist and sportscaster Carrie Champion is here to talk about making it to the very top of her profession and then why she decided to step away once she got there.
It's Thursday, May sixteenth. I'm Danielle Robe.
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the right side from Hello Sunshine. Wooh, Danielle, I'm not gonna lie. I came in hot this morning. I don't feel like I can talk about anything else until we address this unhinged speech that Kansas City chiefs kicker Harrison Bucker gave over the weekend at a graduation ceremony. You know which one I'm talking about.
I'm read in the cheeks. I'm so embarrassed for him.
This was a mess. So, if by some miracle of God, you've been spared by this speech in your algorithm, we are unfortunately going to drop this bomb on you right now. So he gave this commencement speech at Benedictine College on Saturday, which is a Catholic school. That's important to note, I think, and there was a bunch of stuff that he railed against things that he is displeased with in society. But the one thing that is getting the most attention are
his remarks about women, about ambitious women. He says that women are happiest as wives and mothers as opposed to working professionals. I think, Danielle, we should probably read parts of it so that people know exactly what we're talking about.
You go for it. You read it, simone.
This is a big one. He's addressing the class of twenty twenty four, right, and he says, I think it is you, the women who have had the most diabolical lies told you. Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. He says that his wife would say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation
as a wife and mother. Can you imagine Danielle being one of those female students in the crowd and thinking, Wow, I just blew one hundred thousand dollars on my college education for nothing.
Well, to top it all off, he got emotional giving the speech, and I just think men are too emotional to give commencement speeches. Honestly, Simone, his mother is a renowned physicist, which is the craziest part of all of this. I'm dying to know what she thinks of his speech. It just is so bizarre. I actually kind of giggled because I was like, Oh, this is an snl skit, this is a joke. He's a paid actor. I can't believe that this is real. The year is twenty twenty four, my guy.
You know, to me, the most telling element of all this is not even the misogyny, Danielle, it's the fear.
Ooh, what do you mean.
This is a sad, scared widow man. He is very afraid of how powerful women are becoming. Like we are becoming very powerful. Okay, we are taking our supplements, we're investing, we're healing, we're self regulating. We're touching grass out here, and we.
Are touching she grass all the time. Especially on the bright.
Side, he sees this. He sees that women are stimulating the economy like it's a hot girl hobby. I mean, we saw that last year with Barbie and Taylor Swift concerts and Beyonce concerts. What like it's hard, Like it's hard for us. You can tell that he is just intimidated by the shifting balance of power in this world. That's all.
This is all I can say, is amen.
Speaking of hot girl hobbies, Simone, we have a new cover girl in town. Gail King is on the cover of Sports Illustrated and it's their famous swimsuit issue. And I'm only going to say her age because I think it matters. She is sixty nine years old, she's an award winning journalist, and she is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. What do you think about that.
I love this. I think this is so major. I think this is so huge just for women overall, because here is Gail King, one of the best journalists that we have right now now, one of the smartest women in our society. She's brilliant, and she's also sexy, and she's in a bathing suit and she's embracing her beauty. And that is exactly the kind of nuance that I think that is so important for everyone to see that women can be multi dimensional. We don't have to just be one thing.
I think it's super powerful and I loved seeing her CBS Morning anchors celebrate her tony.
And Nate were like woohooing in the most respectful way.
It was really fun to see them celebrate the moment along with everybody else.
Yeah, this is definitely a new dawn for news anchors and perception of news anchors, because even just a few years ago, I don't think that this would be as celebrated as it is. So I actually really applaud her for taking the first step here because hopefully this will just brought in our view of who journalists are, and what journalists are capable of, and what a journalist looks like. I sent this to you over Instagram. What did you think when you saw it?
I'm here for it.
I mentioned her age earlier purposely because I think in our culture we desexualize women after they're no longer able to be fertile, and we particularly desexualize mothers in our culture. Gail is over forty five, she's a mother, she's, like you said, a journalist, and I just I think this speaks to the idea that beauty is not about what you look like, it's about who you become. And Gail has become such a powerhouse and she's bridging every single gap.
Yeah, when did we become this society that says, if you are a journalist and you show up to work wearing a suit interviewing dignitaries and politicians, that you can't also enjoy yourself in a bathing suit on a beat. A bathing suit is a functional piece of clothing, so you can swim in the warm gulf of Mexico. Let's be able to hold two truths at once. People.
I'm just going to keep saying amen to you today.
In other exciting news, Legally Blonde is coming to a screen near you.
What like it's hard, guys? A Legally Blonde prequel is coming our way next year.
Courtesy of our boss, Reese Witherspoon. Courtesy of Hello Sunshine and Amazon Prime. Simon, You're not the only one screaming. Screams could be heard around the internet round the world. People have been dying for more Elwoods. And this time we're going to get Ellwoods in high school, long before she went to Harvard. We're gonna find out how she became everybody's favorite Gemini vegetarian.
I cannot wait to see high school el Woods. I want to see did she go through any growing pains?
Like?
What was that coming? Of age time for her, Like you know, this movie Legally Blonde has always been a cultural touchstone for me. I remember watching it with girlfriends growing up and being so entertained but also impacted by the depth of it too, and the ambition and determination of this woman. But what's been really cool to see Danielle is however lasting the impact of this film is, it comes up all the time whenever we interview women on this show.
I also think this speaks to exactly what we were talking about a few minutes ago, which is Elle Woods was multi dimensional. There's this perseverance in her character that always, for like lack of a better word, just inspired me.
You watch that movie and you leave.
The theater, or you leave the airplane, or you leave your bedroom wherever you're watching it, being like I can do anything. I'm just excited for a new generation of girls to get to feel that.
I also loved seeing Reese really late into the excitement around this. She posted this really cute video where she was dressing up in pink and putting up on the pink heels, and then she walked out on stage to give a presentation and she did the bend in the snap and I appreciate a creator who understands how beloved their work is, and I just love that she's leaning into the excitement and enthusiasm around this project too. Do we think Jennifer Coolidge is going to make a cameo?
She has to, She must, she must. And if you are counting down the days to the release of this TV series like us, we know that it's coming out in twenty twenty five. We're not sure exactly when, but we'll keep you posted.
After the break, journalist in sportscaster Carrie Champion is telling us about her decades long career covering sports and why she chose to leave at the top of her game. Welcome back to the bright Side Today, we're joined by journalist and sportscaster Carrie Champion. Carrie has spent decades covering the top stories in the sports world for Vice, ESPN,
and now Amazon. Her show, The Carrie Champion Show, is a must watch for its unfiltered and straightforward look at sports and the role that they play in our daily lives. It features interviews with current and former athletes, celebrities, writers, and analysts.
Carrie also hosts a podcast, Naked with Carrie Champion. Which is all about getting guests to lift the veil and get vulnerable about their lives and careers. Carrie, welcome to the show.
You guys are so bright and happy and cheery, and I was like, I have to wear pink. That's what made me think. I was like, yes, I wore bright colors. You didn't say, but.
You've seen our logo clearly, y, Yes, it's right bank. All right, Carrie, the producers are making me tell you a very embarrassing story. Okay, I tried to get out of this. Here we go. So the truth is, I've been following your career for a very long time, you know, all the way back to the Tennis channel days. And when I first moved to Los Angeles, I worked at a management and casting company editing reels, and your reels was one of the reels that came across my desk.
So I literally have been following you from the very early days. And so just watching your career, watching you go on to ESPN, get your own shows. I've been cheering you on from afar.
That's so wonderful. Don't make me cry. This is the bright side.
Yeah.
So I'm curious, like, what were those early days like, because you've been at this for.
A minute, and I have, and let me tell you, it feels like I'm still at it. It really does sometimes. First of all, thank you, that was very kind. And every time I hear a story like that, I don't hear them often, but when I do hear them, I always think that I'm still on the right path and doing what I was supposed to be doing. But the early days were hard for me, I must be honest, but I didn't know they were hard because I just wanted to do it. I was like a one man
ban I graduated from UCLA. I drove my niece on Ultima to West Virginia for my very first job. That was just so hungry, and I remember thinking, I'm going to be Oprah. I'm gonna be Katie Couric. I wanted to do that in such a real way, and I didn't know why I wanted to do it, but it felt as if it was my calling. I mean, since I was seven years old, I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. I saw Oprah on TV. I'm like, I'm going to do that. I don't know how, but
I'm going to do that. And so the days were hard, like a one man ban, editing, shooting, writing, doing all of the things and being okay with it. So the early days are, to your question, a lot of jumping around. I went from West Virginia to Florida to not having a job, moving back to LA working part time at this Orange County place, working at E Entertainment as a producer, having a minute to feel like I was going to
be a producer because I was like, I can't. No one's hired me to be in front of the camera, so I'm going to produce. Then I worked as an assignment editor, and all of that, I realized helped create who I am today. I was able to identify what a story looks like, I can produce a story, and so all of it worked really well for me, even when I went to Atlanta, because I moved to Atlanta, which is considered a top ten market, but it was
still local news. And I remember, you know, my photographer couldn't get a shot because he had to finish editing, and I took the camera out and I got the shot. I was like, didn't you worry about it? I got it, you know. So the early days for me were just forming a foundation that I didn't know would be the foundation that I have today.
You mentioned a few of those people that you looked at, Oprah, Diane Sawyer, Katie Kurk.
Those are my ogs, like, those are the those are the legends, the legends like, And people will say things to me about that, and I'm like, hold on, hold on, I didn't interview leaders of state and stare them down and say how dear you? Like That's what Diane Sawyer did, and that's what Barbara Walks did. And they were unafraid and unapologetic, and they didn't. It was before TikTok and social media. They were doing it to make sure they told the story.
When I look at your Instagram, so much of it is about opening a door behind you when a door has been opened for you. That seems to be such a common theme. Yeah, did you have people that did that for you or you wanting to change that narrative? You know.
When I arrived at ESPN, probably my second year, I was inundated with emails and I was like, oh, I should start helping others because I don't remember. There was one lady local news here and she still works here in local news. Pat Harvey. She works on the local CITs station, and my mom walked up to her one day when we were at church and said, my daughter wants to do what you want to do. Can she talk to you? And I'm like, mom, Mom, I begins
to stop. I'm embarrassed, and pat was like sure, and she let me come and hang out in the studios in Hollywood, and she gave me like a couple of hours and she just said, I wish you luck. And I remember thinking that was such an incredible couple of hours of my life. It just reminded me this is what I wanted to do, even though I hadn't had a job, but I thought, wouldn't it be cool if people had access to everyone? Now, you know what I mean?
And so that's probably why I'm I feel very obligated, and also I feel like it's a responsibility, you know, to give back. That's arguably one of the most rewarding things of what we get to do.
I find that the words that I'm giving other people I most need to hear myself.
Correct, I'm talking to myself as I talked to you. Yeah correct, Yeah, so interesting. And we were talking Simone about her moving to New York. I'm like, move, move, do it now, do it? I support it.
If you haven't lived in New York yet, Danielle, I think it's like a necessary rite of passage, Like you got to do.
It, well, Carrie, just moved. Because here's what I was interested in. You said to me you had an eat prey love moment.
Yeah, and you.
Know, I think people look at you, Carrie Champion, and they're like, she really did it. So to hear that you had sort of like a crisis moment was so interesting to me.
What were you feeling?
I think everyone does. I think how we present what people what they see of us, and who we are separate from what people see of us. Yeah, I have always and I don't know where this comes from. I was like, I have to travel in the direction of what I fear most. And I feared moving to New York and adjusting to a whole bunch of new people and hanging out with folks and working at CNN, and it's politics isn't necessarily my thing. I've been in sports.
How do I make the intersection happen between the two. I'm panicking and I'm like, okay, head first, just do it. Stop thinking about it and just do it now. I don't know if that always works. I wouldn't tell everybody to do what I did, but you do. I did it because I wanted to, and I have no regrets because I would have always thought, well, why didn't I live in New York? And to Smolle's point, everyone, it's a rite of past. Everyone must live in New York,
whoever's listening. If you are single or whatever your situation is, you have to move to New York at least four six months just to try it, you know, just to try it because the city gives you an energy that you can never get from anywhere.
The Graduate School of Humanity, it is the Graduate School of Humanity, and it forces you to understand.
Like that when they say if you can make it anywhere, you can make if you make it in your it's true. Like once you can get on the subway and yell at everyone, you're all set.
Carrie, you talked about making it, and I have this theory that making it doesn't actually exist. Right, what do you think about my theory? Is that real?
Absolutely? It's accurate. This world as we know it is ever evolving and changing quickly. Laws, the way that we move and manifest and so I'll just use me an example. I want to have this show and I want to be able to tell these stories. Then you get there and you're so caught up in doing the gig you don't even know that you've made it. And I feel like making it always just redefines itself because you work
so hard to present an image. I think it's actually now with social media, you think everyone is doing everything amazing that you want to do, and then you meet them and you're like, Okay, no, we're all just figuring it out. We're all just grinding it out, and it's never making it. It's just it's accomplishing goals. So for me now, one of my big goals would be I want to be able to tell really authentic stories that meet the intersection of sports and culture and activism in music.
But I also feel very responsible of the words that I choose, the people that I interview, the things that I say, and that's a whole other level of responsibility, and the making it starts to subside. That doesn't become the goal anymore. The goal is am I really being responsible with what I have been given?
Well, okay, I want to drill into that because you worked your way up at ESPN, you were there for eight years and you decided to leave. I'm sort of fascinated by the idea that you left this job that you had always dreamed of. You talked about all those moments where you were one man banding.
Right, and you're like, I made it.
But was it that it didn't feel the way you thought it would, or.
What was really really hard? It was really really hard and really really rewarding. I was a rookie when I first came in, so I'm working with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. You have to be made of something really special to sit between those two, especially on a show called First Take, which was very still very popular, still is just as popular. But it was such a man's world and it was I described it this way
I wrote about it. Have you ever sit in the middle seat on maybe a cross country flight from LA to New York. You can't really lean too far to your left or too far to your right because you're going to be in someone's space. So you're just trying to stay like this the whole time I described my experience on that show, I couldn't get too comfortable on my left or to my right, just because of the dynamics of the show. And I remember thinking, God, this
is the hardest thing I've ever done. And there were times, you know Danielle's interview, one of my one of my closest friends in Jamel Hill, there were times where I would college amount. I'm like, today's last day. I'm quitting. She's like, what are you talking about today? I'm quitting. You said I was there for eight years. I tried to quit a year in and she talked one there. Yeah, Oh, I got six months in and she talked me on
the line. She was like you. I was like, I can't do this because there was such an incredible amount of pressure on the one in the middle seat. I was supposed to quote unquote contain these two who can't be contained. I wasn't that familiar with sports. They didn't want me there. I came from the Tennis channel. They didn't know my work. I wasn't an established sports journalist in their opinion. And by there, I mean the people who watched the show, the people within the building, and
so they made it they made it hard. But you do that, you do that to Riki. So it's called Ricky hazing, and I don't complain too much because it taught me so much. It was one of the best lessons of my life. I remember when I was Atlanta and I got quote unquote fired for cursing on air and I was doing a commercial break. It wasn't really cursing, but it was like, I said, mother sucker. And back then I was like, you can't say mother sucker. And I'm like, oh my god. Everyone says that it's a
cultural thing too. I was like, no, that's badass that you said that. Yeah, mother sucker. Well, by the way, that's my personality. And you ladies can relate to this. I'm sure your personality and sometimes perhaps your confidence can make people uncomfortable because it's a natural thing. It's just natural. I'm not trying to be anyone else but myself. And so while I was uncomfortable, I still believed. I'm like, I belong. I don't know about you, guys, scooed over here.
I come, you know.
And so it was hard, and it was always hard, and I'm okay with that. I like hard. I like it. I like to work for things.
And one of the hardest parts, I think is you also have people who work at that establishment telling you to be authentic, and you're like, I'm trying, I'm showing up as my full self, but yet there's this suffocation of that self that happens that's really hard to record.
I don't know if you guys feel like you bring your full selves, but it's hard to bring your full self to work.
I had a kind of similar experience where I felt like I was catfished by my dream job. Oh, like like, this is going to be perfect, this is gonna be everything that I wanted to be, and then slowly over time you realize, wait, the dream has shifted. Now the dream is different. So what did that experience at ESPN reveal to you about your ever evolving dreams?
You know, I wanted to get back to news. It was twenty twenty, like so much was happening. The world just shut down, and I didn't know that was going to happen. But I just felt like I had to get back to what brought me into this business, and that was telling stories of people who I was very
interested in or I wanted to help. I remember being and this is a story about why I wanted to be a journalist, not only just because I saw Oprah, but I was seven years old and I lived in a neighborhood in West LA not far from here, and we a bunch of kids in the neighborhood started cleaning up the neighborhood with like brooms from our houses because the neighborhood wasn't that great, and so we would just take some brooms from our houses and clean up the streets.
And a local news reporter came and she covered the story and it was what they call a kicker, and we were all just standing there excited, and we're like, yeah, with our brooms, right and whatever things we're doing, we're clean up our neighborhood. And I remember listening to the story and I thought, wow, she sure did mischaracterize what we were doing. As I go, some kids who are down on their luck and heart, you know, dah da da da, and they're trying to build up their neighborhood.
And I'm like, well, that's not really what we were trying to do. And so it was told from her lens and I was like, Okay, this is it. It's a brown woman. I need to get out here and tell the stories. I need to represent us. I need to speak for those who can't speak for themselves. My dream job is to tell stories that are representative of my culture of the world that we live in, because that is how we're going to learn to coexist.
Who'd you call for when you quit? Who is your call?
That's a good one. I talked about it a lot with a lot of my friends. But at the time, do you guys know Bosima Saint John? I know. Yeah, So at the time I said, Bosama, I want you to help me write a resignation letter. She's like what. And I was like, I'm gonna leave. She was like, I don't like what they're paying you. You're grossly underpage. You're worth so much more. It's time for us to leave. Huh. And I was just like, no, that's not even the reason.
I just want to leave because I'm not. She's like, you're not. They don't you know. She just let me know where I was and who I was and what she saw for me, and she was like, it may not be easy, it may not be like the biggest platform, but you have a vision and you should go and you should try to figure that out and don't let the world's timeline. Define your timeline. So if it takes five years or ten years for you to do whatever that next big thing is, that's your dream job, let
it take five or ten years. You let the world figure out what time it is. You don't have to figure it out, you know. And agents were like trying to talk me out of it, and I'm like, it'll be okay, it'll be fine, trust me. And it's been fine. Well, it's not the same platform right where you're like, oh, you can see me Monday through Friday. Here, the work has been more valuable, lucrative, and I've been able to do the things that I wanted to do. I couldn't just up and move to New.
York mm hmmm. Or you have ownership now, which is invaluable.
And people don't understand that. Once and you pick and choose a project you like and love and the things that you want to do. And I think every person who's done that, and you know who, I think about a lot. I think of Aaron Andrews because when she left, people were like, why are you leaving? And I remember when she left, it was such a brew ha ha. And I was really proud of her. I was like, good for you. You go where you want it. It's
like a relationship. Who's staying in a relationship where they're not wanted. She's my fellow gator. We both are.
Uh huh go gata.
Sometimes I think about it on the Voice. Do you ever watch that show?
Yeah?
I do.
Yeah.
You know how people pick who they're like they grew up watching, but they actually should be picking the person that wants them the most.
That's it. I think it's sort of a visual every because life people will not appreciate you. My mother always used to say, I don't know if I taught you how to be humble. I definitely taught you you can, you deserve and you should go out and get what you want. But I haven't taught you humility. And I was like, life teaches us that you don't need.
I think that's so good that your mom didn't teach you humility because I feel like the generations that came before me, the ancestors that I am, I'm standing on their shoulders now, it was all humility. It was like too much humility, So that that's healing generational trauma right there?
Correct? And I told her, I said, you did a great job because you taught me to pull up a chair and sit and say and speak. And while that makes people uncomfortable, life will humble you. You don't need someone to teach you humility. You will ultimately life will. You will live life. Things will happen, you will go out into the world. And you're like, oh, that humbled me, So that's my whole point. I'm like, no, no, no worry,
life will do that. What you taught me was to get back up and keep trying to believe in myself, to pick and choose, to find good people to surround myself with who believe in themselves. All the things that we deserve, All the things that you have now you deserve. You deserve.
Not Carrie coming on the bright side, gassing us up.
Yes, you need it, you deserve.
We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back with Carrie Champion. And we're back with Carrie Champion. Carrie, you've been covering women's sports for a long time, so we have to talk about women's basketball this year. And Caitlyn Clark, how did it feel to see these amazing women finally get.
Some shine college basketball? Loved it? I remember the day that LSU won last year, won the championship, and I don't know if you know the story, Angel Reese was like taunting Caitlin but with the ring right, doing what Kaitlyn normally does, but she was doing it back to her. And there were all these people who just started watching sports and they were weighing in and they were saying these awful things about Angel Rees and Cna Goes. Can you come on to talk about it? And then I
was like, oh, we've made it. Normally they bury sports at the very end, and this is their lead story. I was like, Oh, this is exciting. So I was excited about it. I know people, Kaylen Clark to me is the Tiger Woods of her sport, meaning Tiger Woods. When he started to play, really changed the purse and how much money his colleagues would make because he was
so incredible and people wanted to watch him. They were adding tours because of him and adding tournaments because of him, and everyone started to benefit, and people say what they want. She brought attention to a league that has needed attention and should be respected, you know what I mean. I'm happy that she's here because she's opening the door and it's not unsimilar to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, you
know those two. Their battle this last two years is not unsimilar to the NBA and when the NBA needed help. And so this is a beautiful time because the business of women's sports is skyrocketing and there is so much money to be made. And not only is there so much money to be made, there are so many stories to be told, and there are so many talented women out there that have yet to be discovered. And so I'm excited about this process. It's really going to change
in real time. Everything is happening in real time.
We're living through it, which is really cool.
Who are you watching in the WNBA right now? I mean, who's your team? What players are you excited about?
My team was the Sparks. I will say that I'm the bias journalist that lives in La, so everything all LA. But I'm really interested, if I'm being honest with you, I'm really interested in the teams with the storylines and the characters right now, which is the Las Vegas Aces and obviously the Indiana favor. Las Vegas Aces have won back to back. They have this phenomenal player named Asia Wilson and Kelsey Plum and all these other great players.
And then Indiana Fever have Caitlyn Clark and Eliah Boston and those two players are who's up next? You know what I mean? They are up next, and Caitlyn say what you want? This woman is Steph Curry of the WNBA. I hate to do the male comparison, but her her shooting is out of this world. Watching how fast she is, how quick she can go, how she can stop on the dime. Now, she's not the best that's ever done it, but anybody who has the ability to shoot that way,
there's something special about that. And you just don't see. I remember when Steph Curry hit the league and everyone's like, where is this? Hey's Steph had been in the league. He just he had been in the league.
You know, wasn't shooting threes like that?
Correct? And so now it made you think, and they were the conversation, who's the goat? Is it Steph or is it is it Lebron? Like That's what we're witnessing right now, and it's exciting, folks. So we got to get in, We got to tap in.
You've interviewed thousands of athletes over the course of your career. I gotta know, who are the biggest characters that you've spoken to and was there anyone who surprised you?
You know, these are all these are funny. I have so many interesting stories about these gents and ladies for the memoir. For the memoir, I'll change their names not so much. No, Kobe Bryant was my favorite interview. He rests in peace. And when I went to CLA, he would come to UCLA and train at Polly Pavilion, and a lot of people did. Shaquille Magic Johnson would come. It was really a bird's eye view into some of
these athletes. But I was a diehard Kobe fan because I'm a diehard Laker fan because my grandmother taught me basketball and so that's why. So it's like either it's a rite a passage in our family. You like the Lakers, or you move out. When I finally got to meet Kobe, he was very, very professional, and if Kobe didn't like something you said about him on air, he would find a way to share it with you. And when I met him and I did the interview, he had just
retired and he would always say to his wife. This is the thing about these athletes. You think they don't know who you are when you're covering them, they're very well aware of you are. And I remember him introducing me to Vanessa and he was like, Vanessa, I want you to meet Carrie. She's a big like her fan. She always says nice things about me. I was like, God, started laughing because it was like, well, I'm objective. He's like, Okay, that's fine. It's sure you are.
But he was one of the good Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But he was one of my favorites because of his mentality. And I know there's controversy with everyone, but how he carried himself, how he was about his business, how he didn't care about being popular or famous, or wearing the latest suits or rapping the latest songs or being the hot guy or whatever. It was just not his thing.
And a part of me understood the loner mentality. When he passed away, it was beautiful to hear how everyone said he would call them and mentor them and say wonderful things and give advice.
I really look at you that way. Oh, I think you give back so much. Right after this, you're going to UCLA to talk when you told me that. I kept thinking, I wonder what you would tell that girl that was at UCLA all those years ago.
Oh what would I tell? Like? Well, first of all, I would say, get to class on time, never on time in to class. I get emotional about this because so many times I could see it, but I couldn't see the path. I didn't know how to get there. God bless her my mom and my father. You know, high school diplomas. They didn't go to college. And if I was to tell myself anything, I would say, remember, just to put your head down, leave your blinders on, and do the work.
And there's no way to prepare that little girl for all of the bias that women in this business run into, right, and I know that you've run up against some of that. I mean vocal criticism about your qualifications or like do you even deserve to be here covering sports? Or even your looks? How did you push through that at each stage of your career.
I will say this, growing up, I'd never had people oh you're so pretty. It would always be you're so smart, and I'm like, yeah smart, that was my affirmation and or quick so the the I didn't care about the comments about what I look like. That didn't bother me. That was their own deal. Being qualified, being prepared, knowing the sport in this particular case, knowing the story, saying the names correctly. All of that feeds into your credibility, and to me, that was the only thing that mattered.
I remember interviewing Floyd Mayweather and miss speaking about something or didn't I didn't have a fact right, and I just I wouldn't. I mean, for a year, I would not forgive myself.
Oh gosh, I'm the same way. I pick up oarurt every little thing, and then I go back and watch the tape. Yeah, and it was never as big a deal as never make it out to be.
Never never, and we're giving it so much power and no one even remembers at all but you. And I think one of my producers gave me the best advice. He was like, never get too high and never get too low. He was like, when they say they love you that they really don't, and when they say they hate you, they really don't. You're not either or like. He was like, don't get too high, don't get too low. Stay in the middle. It's impossible, but stay in the middle.
But every now and again, you know, you could have seven thousand great comments in one comment. You're like this bastard. Okay, I didn't say it right. It was nineteen nineteen, not nineteen twenty, you know what I mean.
You know what's interesting. As you were saying how did I get through it? What I felt in my body was that you haven't that it chips away at your soul.
Yeah, when people are mean at you, mean to you. Yeah, And it's not that you get over it. You're just like, it's a part of the business. So it's like it's like this, you guys, you walk in a room and you're and you are working, or say, if you have a for I'll give an example. Every time I go into a new environment, I have to pull out my resume again. And that's the part that's frustrating. It's not so much that it chips away at my soul. It's
just exhausting to continue to pull out my resume. So if I'm working at CNN now and I am sitting next to whomever who's been there for thirty years, and they're looking at me like, you know, you have to start all over again, no matter how long you've been doing it, and our and for women, our our margin of era is less. Like men make mistakes all the time. I used to sit next to you. You'd say names wrong every day. Let me say a name wrong. It's
the end of the world, you know. But the reality is that our room to make mistakes is like, it's so slim. It's so slim, and so we're held to a different standard and so it's exhausting.
That code switch is so real.
That girl, it's like, you're like, okay. I hope that it changes eventually. I would love to get on here and tell you guys that here's the bright side of it. The bright side for me, if we were talking about the the right side for me is that I have learned to respond better and that it doesn't sit in my spirit and and I don't take it personal.
I also heard that you like affirmations.
Yes, I love affirmations.
Can you give us some words today?
Yes?
You know. I think you ladies seem to be pretty centered. I don't know where you are in your lives, are professionally or personally, but I think the one affirmation I said this earlier, I want you all to really embrace that you you deserve the pay, You deserve to be comfortable with compliments. You deserve to be sitting at the table, owning the table. And I tell my friends that all the time, you deserve a good man, You deserve a good partner. You do because you work hard. You wouldn't
be in this position. You wouldn't show up every day, you wouldn't try to do the thing. So you deserve
as one of my favorite affirmations. And then also one of the affirmations that I have on my refrigerator right now, I got out of this relationship and I really love this guy, like I thought that we were going to get married, and I've spen the rest of our lives together and he was so wonderful in so many ways, but he didn't like himself and I and when you don't like yourself, it's hard for you to really be
happy and like other people. So in my inner circle, one of the affirmations that I say, I only surround myself with people who like and or love themselves because that way they can be that way with you. And then, last but not least, be okay with change, Like I change all the time. I'm not just one thing, and so I like to change, you know, move to New York as a change.
You're giving me the I Carrie, I have one final question for you. You mentioned that you love change. Yeah, I'm the same way. What era are you in right now?
Oh, such a good question, Simon. The era of my life professionally and personally is only doing what I want to do. And what I mean by that is now I'm looking at it like I'm making decisions for the rest of my life. I'm not gonna waste my time doing this anymore. I think for so long I spent time trying to please others or be what I'm supposed to be for others, or what people think I am, and not wanting people to see any of my skeletons if you will. But I'm like, oh no, that's fine.
I'm fine, I'm great. I deserve I am who I am. If you get it, grit, get on board. If you don't get it, that's fine too. There's a freedom that comes with I will be okay, I got this, And there's a freedom that comes with that, a real, true freedom. And so I'm aspiring to the freedom of just being my full self. But right now I'm doing what I want, and I'm not necessarily my full self always, but I am doing what I want.
You're in your I deserve era, you deserve.
Yeah, you deserve it all. Carrie.
Just good luck and you deserve.
Thank you so sweet.
You're welcome, Carrie to you. Mpia is a broadcast journalist, host and storyteller. Listen to our podcast Naked with Carrie Champion wherever you get your podcasts. That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we have multi hyphen it Jamila Jamil here. She's going to tell us all about her activism, what it looks like to be a feminist in progress, and her passion for speaking up against injustice.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
And I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
That's ro Ba.
Y see you tomorrow, folks,