Sage Steele
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
192.6672
Summary
Sage Steel worked at espn as an anchor as a host for almost 17 years. She was good at her job, which is why she stayed so long, but there was one problem: she decided to say what she really thinks in a gentle, measured way, but still, for example, in 2021, she went on a pod and hammered espn for its vaccine mandate. She called it sick and scary, and it was on that same pod that she committed a real sin. She asked a question about why does President Barack Obama call himself black when he's actually biracial, and why does he call himself black when he s as white as he is black? She settled a lawsuit with them, and now, she s joined us in the studio. In this episode, she tells us about the support she received from women in her career, and what it s like being a woman in a male-dominated world, and how she feels about the lack of support for women in sports journalism, especially in the sports world. She also shares her thoughts on why women should be paid equal to men in the workplace and in the locker rooms, and the importance of having equal pay in sports media, as well as what she would like to see in a world where women are paid fairly for equal pay for equal representation in sports. . And, of course, she also gives us her opinion on the matter of women s equal pay and representation in sport, and in society, and explains why she thinks it s important to have equal pay across the globe, not just in the world of sports media. and why we should be fighting for women s representation in the sport, not only in sports, but in sports and the world as a place where women deserve equal pay, and not just equal pay in all of our sports media , and why it s time for women to be paid the same as men in sport to be equal in pay and respect and respect, not less than men in every aspect of our society but also in every other word What do we do to support women in sport? is it possible to be a woman who s a woman and a woman, and what do you want to be in sport and a man in sport ? How do you know who s not a woman? What does she think about women s rights in sports? Is she a woman ?
Transcript
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sage steel worked at espn as an anchor as a host for almost 17 years she was good at her job that's
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why she stayed so long but there was one problem sage steel decided to say what she really thinks
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in a pretty gentle measured way but still for example in 2021 she went on a podcast and
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hammered espn for its vaccine mandate called it sick and scary which it was on that same podcast
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she committed a real sin and she asked an obvious question why does barack obama call himself black
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when he's actually biracial he's as white as he is black you can't say that it turns out espn pulled
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her off the air for 10 days why interesting question then steel made espn even matter when
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she said that the man in the bathing suit leah thomas who was winning all the swimming competitions
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was not in fact a female swimmer so behind the scenes espn said you'd better be quiet about the
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trans issues in fact sent her a letter saying it's totally fine to talk about trans issues as long as
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you don't misgender someone in other words you can disagree as long as you don't disagree with the
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people you're arguing with you have to accept the terms of the trans activists you're criticizing
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or else you're a thought criminal watch this there was a special an espn special that came out
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showcasing you know women's history month and the special was surrounding leah thomas and i just
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remember thinking to myself you know i could not imagine being a woman working there being asked to
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report on this issue with a smile on my face yeah and so i just kind of wanted to ask about the
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support you felt from women uh since of course taking the stands that you have none none um i was
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asked to stop tweeting about it i was asked to stop um doing anything saying anything about it on social
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media because i was um offending others at the company none absolutely none but she does have good
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people around her because she herself is a good person she's gone from espn she settled a lawsuit with
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them and now sage steel joins us in the studio so it is such an honor to have you here thank you
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this is my honor thank you what a great response tell us about the support you've received from women
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a nun absolutely none is that true women supporting women you know how it goes uh i do know how it goes
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i know and i will say throughout my career i think that's the overall most disappointing thing is that
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and especially in the sports world where when i started like dinosaur years yeah no internet you know
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i was always the only woman in the locker rooms i bet the most support i received from
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was definitely from my male peers because they like women well no wasn't it like that and i was
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married they were no no i don't mean in a creepy way it's just they're just no i don't mean that
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actually i didn't mean it in a sexual way it's just like men are kind of programmed to
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have affection for women i mean they just are but i also think that they they weren't threatened
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yeah i mean especially early on in my career but even at espn i was excited because
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uh where i was before in dc i was i was the only mother so i was excited to be around women who are
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a little bit older and could maybe you know part of the club and and take care of each other as a
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mother first and foremost forget about you know the broadcast because that is competitive um so i
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think you know the big picture is women preach this all the time and it's like oh the men holding
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us down in the glass ceiling and i speak every time i speak publicly at an event or whatever i make
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sure i bring this up because i'm very passionate about it as the mother of two girls yes um and
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they're you know college age kids too but you know we complain about the guys but look in the mirror
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what do we do to each other first and foremost well i've seen it a lot i've had a lot of female bosses a
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lot and every single one of them has been nice to me i'm just being honest i mean some were good some
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were not good most were not that great but some were fine they're always nice to me always nice they
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were savage to the women on staff and i always noticed that they're mean to the women what is
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that they pit us against each other they really do um which again is just unfortunate but to me
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okay fine own that if you don't like the other women but then to be hypocritical and go on social
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media and talk about let's uplift each other and listen i wasn't trying to call people out but over
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the last eight months maybe probably a year i when i started to support riley gains
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yeah and certainly the whole transgender sports issue um i said women we don't realize our power
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if we as women in the media let's just say women in sports media because this is a sports issue
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came together to say no no no we've been fighting for so long for women in sports and for salaries to
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be equal at times you know you look at the women's national soccer team versus the men and the ratings
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they brought in versus the men there are some things yeah like we are fighting for women
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and then to be silent when it comes here like espn w is part of the espn network that w is for women
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they spend millions of dollars on a um a big summit like a a get together of women every single year
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and on the stage it's it's women and promoting women and um promoting diverse thought with women
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and supporting them so then when the biggest issue really of of the last i don't know several decades
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comes up after all the title nine fights we as sports media women remain silent to me the hypocrisy
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was too thick to ignore yeah and and sound in a kind of north korean way like nobody's allowed to
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disagree even a little bit no and and then i found out yeah more from my employer like zip it and i and
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so i made sure that night when i received that email which was wow i'm in the middle of a free speech
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lawsuit against that company i made sure and sent another email because are you going to tell me
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to not support women like this is like the most orwellian sentence i alluded to it in the intro but
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here it is while civil discourse on the issue of transgender athletes competing in women's sports
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is both appropriate and beneficial that discourse needs to be fact-based and should not rely on personal
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attacks insults derogatory or crude language or misgendering others
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so you can disagree as long as you accept their premise
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as long as you follow the narrative and and listen um i i knew that but to me this just was
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this was simple and it was a no-brainer but they put that in writing that's real right in writing and
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then it continued and you might offend people at our company who are in the lgbtq community by what by
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supporting women because there's a difference between attacking the transgender community
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and supporting women i have never and would never do that that's not my heart because i have empathy
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for for transgender people who want to compete well of course but the answer is not to take from the
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women that for over 50 years billie jean king title nine sure um this is not the answer and i had no
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idea that that would be controversial to stand up for women isn't one of my female relative of mine
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said to me the other day i thought was kind of brilliant like the whole trans thing really is
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just another triumph of men over women does anybody ever say that i've i've i have heard that more
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recently um it's amazing how many dms i get and emails through website or whatever from people
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even in the industry who are like i wish i could so thank you and i'm like oh we all can yes i do
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understand why they don't i mean listen i'm a prime example of of what happens when you speak up and
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are yourself you get canceled i mean hey you know all about that yeah right so but you there's a point
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in everyone's lives where you have decisions to make for me it's so much this is so much bigger than
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me who am i i'm in my 50s i'm not playing sports i'm trying to do peloton once a week
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there's a big difference between me and these young women like riley gaines or my niece who's
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a good softball player a good volleyball player so for me it's about um kids and speaking up for
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parents who might have that fear especially to hang on to their job because they might get an email
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like i did so if i don't use this to stand up for these parents and young girls then shame on me
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that's kind of the way and also how can you respect yourself how can you sleep soundly how can you
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have dignity if you're reading someone else's script you can't so what just give us a synopsis
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of your life you you said off camera that you'd grown up all around because you're from a military
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family how did you get to espn oh gosh quite the i bet you know army brat so when people say where
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you're from like i i need you think at this point i'd come up with a better answer um everywhere yes and
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by the time i was 11 i lived in four different countries wow um at the time spoke a couple
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languages but now let's stick with english let's yes straight off the reservation there yeah um and
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then uh went to indiana university hoosier took all took all five years and then i think they were
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like just take this diploma and leave please like you're embarrassing us just go away got the piece
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of paper and then um listen espn was always my goal always my dream wow i was 11 when i announced
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at the dinner table to my parents that i wanted to be a sportscaster um and i was this super shy
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girl um i think all the moving you know um just throughout my whole life um probably made me extra
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shy but then i it also i think subconsciously taught me that if you want to have friends on the
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kickball court you know at recess certainly then into corporate america like you have to go make that
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happen yes um so when i said i wanted to be a sportscaster my dad and mom were like okay and
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this is 1984 there were no women doing this when i was 11 12 years old yes um and they're like okay
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um you're not you're not to talk if you want to be on tv so they had to really push me out of my
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comfort zone and push through that fear of being unliked disliked if i unlike sign of words see english
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language disliked um if i'm myself and that's why i was just shy and as a biracial young woman my mom's
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white irish italian my dad's black um you felt different you were not enough for here and not
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enough for this side either so you're there's a lot of confusion um so i look back and i'm grateful
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for being really uncomfortable and having great parents to push me through those times when um i had
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this dream but they were like you're gonna have to work extra hard to get there so did you wind up
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in a lot of places before uspn yes south bend indiana first one cbs affiliate in south bend
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um and then to indianapolis so at like 22 it was the top 25 market you know i was completely in over
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my head and the first woman doing sports in that city and we have nba and nfl and all the college and
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so three man sports department i was definitely number four out of three like number eight out of
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three um but that's where oh that's where there were certainly some experiences where it was
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obvious that um they didn't they didn't want me there they weren't quite ready um i knew i wasn't
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ready but i also you know what do you turn down an opportunity well you take it yeah and then you are
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humble lead with humility and ask everybody around you lead with kindness just like growing up as a
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kid if you wanted friends when you kept moving across the world you're kind and you lead with that
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of course yeah so indy and then to tampa and then to dc um dc baltimore comcast sports net for
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for six years and actually this is funny and then i'll shut up i got my first offer from uspn
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um in 2004 and and turned it down um i was pregnant with my second child and knew i wanted at least one
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more and i had a friend the late great stewart scott that rest his soul he died of cancer nine years ago
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and he was everything at espn yeah and he was like listen i love you we had the same agent he's
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like you you need to be ready to go there and as a young mother still trying to have more kids
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um you know you'll get eaten alive yeah especially back then and of course early 2000s it was a very
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different place so um i really took a chance and was scared even my agent everybody said you're nuts
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espn doesn't need you you need them and if you turn this down um you're gonna be blackballed
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and i you know i raised that family's everything and um when you live move across the world
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and i have two younger brothers it was the five of us yes so i knew that if i didn't follow through
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with that core principle in my family as a mother myself that i'm a hypocrite so turned it down and
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took a chance that they call me back you did i'm so glad but i think it again it i didn't look at it
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as a bigger picture thing it was just what i felt i had to do with that moment young people in hindsight
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yeah it was a i believe in myself thing and a faith in god where if this was meant to be
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then i would get another chance but either way i have my babies and i will never regret well exactly
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i've met a lot of people who regret a lot of things you know tattoos jobs sexual encounters
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i've never met anybody who regrets a child not one yeah and that's what i say so many you know
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mothers will say gosh we're just not sure i'm like are you asking my opinion if you're not sure
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to me that's your answer exactly you'll never regret you know having another child but you might
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if you don't i completely agree so i'm grateful for that time and for taking a chance and then and
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then going and to be able to live out that dream that i had when i was a little girl how many people
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actually get to do exactly what they set out to do when they were 11 at that network it's a blessing
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amen and in the end you learn i think it's fair to say whatever tv network you work for whatever
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company you work for they don't really care about you no your children care about you and always will
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even if they hate us happy that's a phase thanks for watching our conversation with sage steel
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politics is so corrupt and so deceptive right now it's really hard to know who to trust especially
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in washington and in the capital city very few are holding the powerful accountable almost nobody but
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the heritage foundation is heritage has been around for about 50 years but it seems newly energized
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and as proof of that the president of heritage kevin roberts recently went to davos switzerland
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with all the powerful people but he didn't go to ben denita klaus schwab no he went to tell them to
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their faces how awful they are here's what he said i'll be candid here because i think i've been invited
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here to be candid elites tell us that open borders and even illegal immigration are okay the average
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person tells us in the united states that both robbed them of the american way of life elites also tell
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us that public safety isn't a problem in big american cities just traveled to new york or washington or
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dallas texas the average person will tell you that the lack of public safety damages not just the american
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way of life but their life well amen if you want to know more about heritage go to heritage.org
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slash tucker we recommend you do so what was espn political when you got there no right that's what
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i thought no no um and it's interesting we did see we how long do you do that for i have quite a while
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um i you know look back and you realize gosh we were kind of inching closer and closer
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yeah and especially when when trump won in 2016 yeah then it was like just wow um i remember talking
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to my bosses and this so this 2016 2017 and saying what are we doing and why are we allowing this
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michael jordan said it in the 80s republicans buy sneakers too and and and because he was criticized
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as tiger woods has been criticized for not being vocal enough for the black community of course
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and to me they're smart businessmen who said yeah no no i want everybody so i would use that example to
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my bosses at my sports network like don't we want everybody to watch espn why divide i believe if
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people want politics they can go to cnn they can go to fox news of course they came to us
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as a respite and as an escape exactly and so why why why and then that president was ousted
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world drama and then the new president came in and i think it was 2017 2017 jimmy pataro and he
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agreed and it was great and he kind of threw the line in the sand like we're not doing this we want
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everybody to watch and then the pandemic hit and then george floyd happened and it's been a mess
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since so your read is that the president of espn was really trying to just be a sports channel
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but he was overwhelmed by the most the current president yes yes and then listen who are we owned
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by well good point disney yeah a very political very left-wing company yes so i i just gotta go back
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to what we said in the intro about your interview about barack obama on a podcast find that really
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interesting and very confusing can you explain what you said and what you meant yes gladly um
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it was with jay cutler the former bears quarterback and you know he had a really good research staff who
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picked out a couple of topics that i had spoken on in the past and it was actually a story from 2014
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i didn't bring up barack obama yeah barbara walters brought up barack obama when i was on the view
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in 2014 when obama was still president and they barbara in particular wanted to talk about why
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i chose to identify as biracial like identify well i am i don't know why this is controversial
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why are you choosing to acknowledge reality yeah and so but i said absolutely bring it up
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and so we're live on the view abc you know we're all same company yeah family and said well why do
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you choose to say you're biracial and i said and she goes barack obama doesn't and i said okay i said i
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think it's interesting um for the president to you know completely forget about the fact or ignore the
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fact that his he was raised by his white mother and white grandmother and his black father was
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nowhere to be found now that wasn't breaking news he wrote a book about that oh yeah i'm not
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criticizing i'm saying these will be facts so to me it was interesting that he chose to completely
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ignore his white side and identify as black my personal opinion which i've never really said
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publicly is okay this was planned this was political everyone knew what they were doing when they
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were he's coming up through chicago they they had a plan for obama for many many many years
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but i did say you do you i'm gonna do me and i i don't know i i'm pretty sure my white mother was
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there the day i was born i mean again in the vicinity anyway i don't know i'm there and so
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and i said but i i'm so proud i'm so proud to have been raised in this beautifully diverse family
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where my white family loves me as much as my black family isn't that what we want and so to me that
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wasn't controversial but i will never ignore my mother and so that got me in trouble so she brought
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up obama in 2014 and so fast forward to 2021 this podcast so can i just ask did that did people
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respond negatively to you saying that um yes there definitely was some negativity and barbara went
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and listen she's not here to right there's nothing personal but these are just the facts of what
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happened and then what led to the 2021 yeah there were several people um in 2014 twitter i don't
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think was what it is now x and certainly how crazy it's gotten but i did get some listen throughout my
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life um the most criticism i've received especially since probably 2016 2017 when i've given opinions on
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things the most criticism i've received is um unfortunately from people who look like me
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from from from the black community and so the criticism that day in 2014 was well she's a sellout
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and look at her white husband and you know all of these things and so i that used to break me that
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used to really devastate me because when you're a biracial kid growing up and you're you know you kind
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of are told you have to choose sides um and i never did my parents gave me that strength despite
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the shyness to say no no this is this is who i am and why is that bad not knowing that 30 years
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later this would be such a controversial thing but um you know so i was just recapping that story in
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2021 and and reiterated it and then that me describing what happened with barbara walters
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um turned into in 2021 sage steel hates black people and thinks barack obama should not identify
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as black and i said no no no like hates black people oh your dad's black
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you can't make it up you can't make it up so um but that that when when i got suspended by espn
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they did bring that up to me like why why are you talking about obama and i what do you mean um
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and so you know i would love not allowed to talk about obama not if you don't follow the narrative if i
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had said listen i i grew up in a biracial household but i'm a black woman i would probably
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still have a job but can i just i just think it's maybe i'm overthinking or perhaps underthinking it
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but it's it does seem very strange like i thought the whole point of the melting pot idea was that
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we're you know we're all people inside and that the left is certainly not against people of different
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races getting together and having children i mean you know i don't think they're against that
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right i don't they don't seem to be so why would they get mad if you say i'm the product of
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of mixed race marriage i just think it's like the craziest thing i've ever heard
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you know that one drop rule we've yeah for years which i've yeah i guess i just don't care enough
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right i agree i agree with that actually like whatever i'm 50 50 i'm yeah i'm a little bit of both
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you know and to me with where we are today we're dei and diversity and inclusion and you know all of
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the things acceptance and tolerance don't i kind of define that yeah i would think so you know and
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so i've been so i've been so confused by it but and this is a discussion i hope to have on many levels
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as i you know my career takes different turns now and it's just to be able to have a conversation
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um but the hypocrisy in this whole topic um i i represent diversity in america i'm so grateful
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that my parents 52 years ago coming off the civil rights era chose to choose love over
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divisiveness right my mother's parents disowned her for marrying a black man she had to choose
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between her family and the man that she loved that loved her that didn't this didn't matter
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and so i look at my parents 52 years and i'm like you know what you guys can keep all your hatred
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your parents are still oh yes they're they're alive and and well some health issues and 52 years
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they've been married 52 years yes that's my but and as a biracial couple despite some very difficult
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times within the family because of the differences you know so i look at them and i'm like okay i can
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kind of handle anything but it is completely hypocritical in my mind for the black community to
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to draw this line you know and because i don't say black and i say biracial i'm a sellout i'm a coon
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i'm named i can't say on tv and i tucker i used to be quiet about it gotten that from people directly
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i've received death threats from people who look like me because i don't identify the way they want
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me to they got on tiger woods about this i remember correct correct and i didn't really understand the
00:24:08.720
dynamic there either like why are you against tiger woods like what i never understood this i never
00:24:12.780
understood this and to me i i just feel like so blessed to be able to represent that diversity
00:24:19.580
that i think america makes america great you know but i do think this because now fine i've been
00:24:25.160
canceled a hundred times i like i don't care anymore that's the cool thing i have to keep speaking out
00:24:30.080
about this and all of these things that have gotten me in trouble because it is bigger than me and every
00:24:34.780
time i've spoken at a college or university i just came from a women's skincare conference everywhere i go
00:24:40.180
this this topic comes up um because it i've been in the news for it but there are a bunch of biracial
00:24:46.720
kids out there who are being told that they're not enough who are being told to ignore their white
00:24:50.720
mother or white father or asian mother father and i know what that feels like and i've been hung
00:24:57.460
you know publicly and canceled for not identifying the way that others want me to so if i don't speak
00:25:04.540
up because i now don't care about what comes at me then what about these kids so i had a woman the
00:25:09.760
other day at this conference come up to me a white woman in tears who's married to a black man and has
00:25:13.800
two kids who are being told right now they're like eight and eleven who are being told well what your
00:25:19.480
mom no disown your white mother yes at a young age and she was in tears and i just hugged her because
00:25:25.620
i was like stand tall let me talk to your kids like i will do anything to help parents and kids
00:25:33.120
of any age i'm 51 like i'll talk to who is being told that they're not enough because they don't
00:25:38.700
identify how the left and the black community and not not all areas but in many says that we have to
00:25:45.300
identify it's bs it's actually racist yeah it's wrong and so i feel i feel so um obligated and excited
00:25:54.060
to tackle this for others who are told that they're not enough yeah it's it's absolutely wild to me
00:26:00.920
that i'll just say the last time but i just can't help but say it at the exact moment we're like no
00:26:05.660
embrace your identity be who you are you know these are inborn qualities no one can it's like
00:26:11.000
attacking people for stating their identity clearly it's like it's insane to me
00:26:15.800
hillsdale college offers many great free online courses including a recent one on marxism socialism
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that's tucker f-o-r hillsdale.com tucker says it best their credit card companies are ripping
00:27:00.140
americans off and enough is enough this is senator roger marshall of kansas our legislation the credit
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card competition act would help in the grip visa and mastercard have on us every time you use your
00:27:13.820
credit card they charge you a hidden fee called a swipe fee and they've been raising it without even
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eleven hundred dollars in hidden swipe fees each year the fees visa and mastercard charge americans are
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the highest in the world double candidates and eight times more than europe's that's why i've taken
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action but i need your help to help get this passed i'm asking you to call your senator today
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and demand they pass the credit card competition act paid for by the merchants payments coalition not
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authorized by any candidate or candidates committee www.merchantspaymentscoalition.com
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it's it's heartbreaking i was at and i'll be quiet i was at a conference once and i have to share this
00:28:03.140
because i think you'll find it fascinating we've heard this quite often but a wonderful young woman
00:28:08.180
a motivational speaker she's white they're predominantly black people at the conference
00:28:12.280
and i was the i was the moderator and she said i she got on stage and she said i i just i just need
00:28:17.700
to apologize and i said what do you for what she goes i need to apologize for for all white people
00:28:23.320
because we can never understand and i it was a moment tucker settle down honey but i was like okay
00:28:29.320
yes among other things i was thinking this is 2017 16 17 oh oh yeah yeah and i just thought oh boy is
00:28:37.020
this you know i'm the moderator i need to stay out of this no i i need to i have a unique perspective
00:28:41.680
i guess because i'm biracial and i said i said no offense i i think you meant well because i know your
00:28:46.660
heart but i'm going to tell you i'm offended that you are telling me that my white mother
00:28:54.680
yeah exactly should apologize i mean have you seen me have you seen my mother have you seen who she
00:28:59.360
married so when you lump white people together saying you should apologize for what what did you
00:29:05.540
do i couldn't agree more what have you done you should be apologizing to me swear to god so how
00:29:11.440
how how was that received when you said that um muffled claps because people are afraid but
00:29:20.600
afterwards for an almost an hour and a half there was a line of people a lot of biracial people a lot
00:29:27.580
of white mothers white fathers black as well who who agree with me and said thank you a couple kids
00:29:34.600
were crying yeah so the the less fearful i've gotten the more i realize that i have to
00:29:43.240
talk about this because we're actually so blessed to have grown up in that environment yes and whenever
00:29:50.420
you tell the truth about anything especially the hard ones it it offends people and enrages them and
00:29:56.020
they plot violence against you in some cases but other people are thrilled and inspired and joyful
00:30:00.500
just to hear something that's true i think there's a lot more positive i agree i really do but the
00:30:05.580
negative is what comes through on social media but there's a lot more sanity so after this happened
00:30:10.620
after the obama the fabled obama interview like what did you think your status at espn was if they're
00:30:16.480
going to get mad at you for that like that's a problem well the number one thing at that time
00:30:20.680
because it kept changing that they said they were upset about was my comments about the vaccine mandate
00:30:24.260
um that was the number one thing that got me in trouble did they tell you that it's not your body
00:30:30.180
or choice or do they just kind of move because they have been telling us it was our body or choice
00:30:34.180
i remember that they've been saying did anyone officially announce that to you or is it just
00:30:37.660
assumed that that was no longer a principle it's literally you have until september 30th 2021 to get
00:30:41.980
a vaccine or you're no longer employed whoa and i waited till the very last possible day to make
00:30:49.380
the decision um because then it had to be in you for two weeks i think it was in order to be fully
00:30:55.520
vaccinated or um and so this was it was a very and i i was close to walking yeah um because i just and
00:31:05.080
this is two plus years ago at the time i just wanted more information of course that's it yeah and i'm
00:31:11.620
like can you give it six months because they're continuing i am no scientist i'm not a political
00:31:17.080
analyst i'm not i'm i'm a i'm a sportscaster and i'm a mother and i i'm just trying to do the best
00:31:22.400
thing for me and for my kids um and i i just did a little homework and it's like wait isn't on average
00:31:30.220
isn't it six to nine years for the fda to approve any vaccine like can we just slow down can you give
00:31:36.660
me six months like i don't know an exception i won't tell anybody i'm just afraid yeah and i um listen
00:31:43.320
and i am divorced and i'm the um sole breadwinner and always have been um and i have three kids
00:31:49.440
yeah currently in college and one on the way yes that choice and i'm not alone i i am so blessed to
00:31:56.880
be able to afford to do more than the average american right right um but at that moment when
00:32:02.040
i'm sitting in the drugstore parking lot do i go in and get this shot that i completely disagree
00:32:07.320
with at this moment in 2021 or you know do i get this or do i walk and then not be able to
00:32:14.820
pay for my kids to pay my mortgage to support my my family my alimony like all the am i willing to do
00:32:23.280
that and what am i going to do so this is how millions of americans feel so this is not a woe is
00:32:30.680
me this is a let's talk about the hypocrisy because i believe that someday we're probably going to get back
00:32:36.240
here again and there's going to be difficult decisions to be made again um but i i did what
00:32:40.520
i had they're like sorry you have a decision you have a choice even though you don't have a choice
00:32:44.380
if you want your job so i went and did it and then ironically that day was the day that my podcast
00:32:51.380
appearance was scheduled on on jay cutler so i was coming in hot tucker off of getting the shot
00:32:56.700
already obeyed their orders and done this thing you didn't want to do because you had to keep your
00:33:02.320
job i complied you complied so you'd already done it but they just didn't want to be criticized for
00:33:07.600
it even though you had done it yes and i listen i really tried to be careful with my words that day
00:33:14.400
um but i specifically said um because i had i had the band-aid on my arm like i raced from there
00:33:21.600
to the and i was rushing and i had been emotional about it and so i i just set up my my zoom and went
00:33:27.280
and i didn't even think you know and so um jay asked me about it right before and i was like ask
00:33:32.520
what you want i don't care and then um and then so when he said it and we're you know rolling i said
00:33:37.880
listen i respect everybody's opinions um for me i'm not comfortable getting this but i had to do it
00:33:45.760
in order to keep my job a job that i love because i loved it to the very last day tucker yeah i said but
00:33:50.740
i believe that it is um sick and scary for any company to tell their employees what to do with
00:33:57.820
their body yeah what medical treatment to get yes crazy but i said but i work for a global company
00:34:03.140
disney and it doesn't surprise me and so i had to do this to keep my job i didn't want to but i
00:34:07.740
complied and here we are but i think it's wrong and that was that was the beginning of the end
00:34:13.520
so what did they say to you once you said that oh i the phone call conversations from
00:34:19.700
one boss in particular um he's like you whacked the company you can't whack disney
00:34:27.200
you can't say those things i said what do you mean i complied i i don't understand and he he said you
00:34:33.140
said it's sick and scary i go well it is that you all are telling me what to do with my body he's like
00:34:37.760
you can't say that you cannot criticize uh your employer we found out um through my attorney our
00:34:45.700
attorney we have a similar attorney yes um that in the state of connecticut there's different laws
00:34:51.300
there's a statute that says um because obviously first amendment um that does not that cover that
00:34:57.060
does not cover employers yes but in the state of connecticut there's a statute where um you are
00:35:02.920
allowed to criticize your employer uh if you're complying and they cannot uh punish you for that
00:35:10.540
and so we found a loophole there and even though it's crazy because i complied i shouldn't even have
00:35:16.540
to find this they found it and um this was a free speech lawsuit based on me being able to say i can
00:35:24.300
have an opinion about something you're forced me to do to my body if i'm complying to your rules
00:35:29.620
and i did it um so first it was but that was before you know the immediate reaction was you
00:35:36.300
can't whack the company you spoke poorly about disney you can't um you you knocked obama i was
00:35:42.320
like i didn't knock obama i i told um because you acknowledged he had a white mom which is i
00:35:47.360
acknowledge the story no white mom from 2014 no white moms allowed that had been said on the abc network
00:35:53.220
six years prior what that was okay then but not now and so they suspended me um took me off the air
00:35:58.700
took events for me made me publicly apologize and then followed it up with a statement of their own
00:36:04.060
saying we believe in diversity of thought however yeah you can't disagree with the vax or misgender
00:36:10.520
someone that's like that's a really crazy i mean that was only a couple years ago but it feels like
00:36:17.340
a different time i don't maybe things have gotten better oh i i i don't know i i well i mean i think as
00:36:26.220
as far as the vaccine conversation again all i wanted was time for more research to be done
00:36:31.720
um i think now we all know two years later yeah my gut a lot of people's gut instinct about it was
00:36:37.820
right um especially when wait wait wait i thought we get this and we're not going to covet right well
00:36:42.820
we get it and we're not going to spread it right like all all of the things that have been well
00:36:45.940
documented um which we choose to ignore now um it just goes away that we were forced
00:36:50.320
to do it um so i think that that just quietly goes away at the end of the day and i i really mean
00:36:57.880
this because um what happened to me happened um it was a brutal decision to have to decide to
00:37:04.960
publicly stand up and file a lawsuit like that was another level because this is the company that i
00:37:10.080
loved the job that i dreamt of since i was 11 years old and did it and did it at the highest level
00:37:15.520
and loved every moment literally um but just to decide to do that because i obviously it's going
00:37:21.800
to be really loud and really public yeah um and to sue disney and espn who you don't do that you
00:37:27.460
know especially i went back to this shy 11 year old kid yes like oh my gosh they're all gonna hate me
00:37:32.420
and and you know but then you have to decide for yourself can you look yourself in the mirror can you
00:37:40.000
go to sleep at night and when i'm preaching to my children and other young women and men out there
00:37:44.540
and broadcasters to to be true to yourself and to stand tall and to not just take it when you
00:37:51.280
disagree with something do it nicely do it civilly exactly so this is not even about me anymore like
00:37:57.120
i've been canceled i'm fine i'm still standing i'm alive you know um but my goal with the lawsuit my
00:38:03.660
goal today and every day honestly it sounds dramatic but till the day i die is to use this platform that
00:38:09.860
i've been given and earned but been given and i believe that's a faith thing as well
00:38:13.580
um to say to these companies um no you cannot pick and choose who is allowed to speak my network
00:38:24.160
espn allowed at the same time as mine going on um our my peers co-host to go on sports center to go on
00:38:32.160
nba shows and talk about roe versus wade and talk about george floyd and talk about these things on a
00:38:36.460
sports show that's not why you do you i guess right like run the company how you want but to
00:38:43.060
allow encourage that but then when i'm on my own talking about my experience as a biracial woman
00:38:47.900
or my experience with a vaccine mandate even though i complied and you punish me and take things away
00:38:53.400
that's not okay and if we truly believe in diversity like i'm done it's diversity of thought we must begin
00:39:00.160
there and it was completely hypocritical and i hope and pray that by little old me trying to stand up
00:39:05.440
against big bad disney i mean it really is david versus goliath that maybe more companies more bosses
00:39:10.900
more leaders will begin to realize listen it's all or nothing just keep the rules consistent for
00:39:17.480
everybody you can't say they can speak and talk about abortion on a nba show and not let the others
00:39:24.200
they literally promoted abortion on an nba program well when roe versus wade came down and then we
00:39:29.100
have anchors crying on tv and for real yes and we have people giving moments of silence for don't say
00:39:33.860
gay on women's college basketball program they took a moment of silence on live tv to talk about the
00:39:39.580
don't say gay and i don't know if you read the bill those words aren't in there i can't to pray to
00:39:43.220
what well i don't know that they were confirming prayer i don't think they're praying to anything
00:39:48.180
not moment of silence so the hypocrisy was too thick for me to remain silent and i pray that
00:39:53.800
leaders begin to realize you can't pick and choose who can speak it's diversity of thought or don't
00:40:01.740
it feels like um i mean throughout our lives i looking back it's obvious that some of the worst things are
00:40:15.680
some of the best things obviously a horrible experience for you at espn but on some level
00:40:21.160
um glad and glad i'm gone they're kind of two different things i mean at the end of the day yes
00:40:29.200
um i'm still heartbroken that it happened the way it did yes i didn't have to yes and i again i loved
00:40:37.520
what i did and it took me years to get there and it was super hard to stay there yeah not the most
00:40:44.420
welcoming nurturing place where they're you're being uplifted and encouraged and
00:40:48.840
um just even get given constructive criticism to continue to get better right um but i did it damn
00:40:55.940
it yeah and um i i'm glad because i can finally speak without being in fear yeah knowing again that
00:41:06.040
like it's it's a lot bigger than me i i thought through the years i was just following my dream and
00:41:12.200
then along the way you know i had young women reaching out and saying oh my gosh you know back
00:41:16.940
in the day my bosses said you have to straighten your hair and you can't you can't look that's not
00:41:20.460
what anchors on tv look like especially national tv you know and so i have young girls saying you're the
00:41:24.780
first woman i saw that just owned your hair and didn't straighten and have the anchor bob and all
00:41:29.180
that yeah so i i just was talking about sports like naive but i didn't realize that i was
00:41:34.860
being an example right for other young women out there and and black women and just the diversity
00:41:41.680
part and so then when i realized that um what an honor you know so i i'm sad that that i don't have
00:41:51.260
that platform to continue to do that but i did it for almost 17 years yeah and now i'm excited at the
00:41:58.880
potential of doing it i mean look i get to talk to tucker carlson where other people who have no
00:42:04.260
idea who i am will see me and forget about this stuff i'm just saying about about being true to
00:42:09.540
who we are 100 and standing up for what we believe in and not lying no i i did have to lie i had to lie
00:42:15.220
a lot yeah about things that i i didn't agree with that we were doing on the air like tell me well
00:42:20.580
to to not be able to ask specific questions about you know when we had athletes all of a sudden
00:42:27.820
collapse lebron's son yeah it's a fair question to ask if he had had the vaccine yes he's a young
00:42:35.480
man healthiest possible exactly um that's one example but to not be able to go there and ask
00:42:42.360
they wouldn't let you oh no and it wasn't just me it was other pieces that were done on outside
00:42:47.220
the lines about it but to me i don't care if you're lebron's son or if you're my neighbor like
00:42:51.820
you're a young man in particular because we there's some science behind i know we don't like the science
00:42:55.940
word now but there's some science behind that right and so if an 18 year old kid is suddenly
00:42:59.940
collapsing especially a boy that's right if i'm his mother i'm asking okay did he collapse because
00:43:06.600
it was raining today versus sunny like any potential reason for this sudden collapse variables you're
00:43:11.540
going to ask as a journalist i'm not saying it was the vax because i don't know i'm not a doctor i
00:43:16.940
get it but we must ask this question but those questions are absolutely not allowed and they were
00:43:22.560
never asked on the net why would yes i mean i believe you and i've certainly seen a lot of that
00:43:28.620
working in the media but you got to wonder about the motive i mean why would espn want to run cover
00:43:35.400
for pfizer like why do they care but they do care so much i i i don't know pfizer madonna j&j
00:43:42.260
bdc fauci like it goes deep right it goes very deep it's just disney though i mean i think we
00:43:49.520
have to remember yeah who runs espn and i think that disney when you look at the decisions disney
00:43:55.760
has made for many years despite it really affecting their bottom line right they've continued recently
00:44:01.800
uh bob eiger came out i think in that sec filing admitting acknowledging that they went to woke in
00:44:07.680
many areas um and look at what's happened um with the the what used to be incredible content that
00:44:13.360
disney used to put out you know and look what's happened and look at the numbers and look at espn and
00:44:17.660
the numbers there i mean that's a part of my question did you do you think you got out in
00:44:22.020
retrospect at the right time oh yeah i mean do you think espn will be a force in sports news in 10
00:44:26.700
years you know i think well it all goes back to the rights deals um yeah and because i know i hear
00:44:33.500
all the time on social media that the only reason that they watch espn is because you know they've got
00:44:39.780
the games they have the games they have the live broadcasts and the espn knows that which is why
00:44:44.180
they've tried to create other revenue streams and you know digital and um you know the espn plus
00:44:49.900
which hasn't done great disney plus has not done great yeah um and so people feel it again people
00:44:55.860
don't come to espn to talk politics but hey it's not just espn the leagues have done it look at what
00:45:02.620
the nba has done and kind of shoving it down your throats and then on the court it says black lives
00:45:06.960
matter um still in some places and it's like wait well we're not paying attention to what we now
00:45:13.000
know factually about black lives matter so um i'm i'm just never surprised anymore my point is
00:45:18.180
just because i'm not surprised doesn't mean i give up we give up those of us who aren't afraid
00:45:24.040
anymore if we give up i feel like we're complicit did any uh that's for certain you're exactly right
00:45:29.180
there i think um did any other anchors express empathy come you know offline privately there were a
00:45:38.120
few there there were definitely a few and um anchors or reporters or analysts for sure there's a lot of
00:45:44.000
people who who feel the way i feel about many things um a lot of men who work there who are on air who
00:45:52.100
wrote and said um you know i i don't know that it's courage but they said i wish i had the courage
00:45:59.460
that you have oh that's so embarrassing i mean come on come on get some dignity right i mean
00:46:06.700
i i agree grow a pair yeah um and at the same time i do try to put myself in their shoes no i get it
00:46:15.560
as white men yeah no i get it when you don't have endless money and you have a family to support
00:46:21.980
um white men are not allowed to have a voice and and in that part of the industry and so i understand
00:46:29.520
the fear but i also see black men and people who are allowed to say much whatever they want quite
00:46:35.800
often um on social media at espn who have daughters who are athletes who are silent and i know damn well
00:46:43.460
that they're not letting a guy a biological male play against their daughter on the volleyball of course
00:46:50.340
not but they're silent and so why that well i i think it just goes back to um the woke but i mean
00:46:59.420
if like michael wilbon you know or whatever someone who's whom i love yeah yeah but we are completely
00:47:04.440
we think completely differently on everything but then then wilbon's views may be totally sincere but
00:47:09.180
like if someone who's established and made some dough it's really you can say whatever you want why
00:47:14.440
don't they i i i think it's this um kind of what i dealt with as a young woman and middle-aged woman
00:47:22.040
for years it's that that fear of being disliked and attacked yeah so these big strong tough football
00:47:30.120
players you know yeah and nba players who have millions of dollars in the bank who are now analysts
00:47:35.660
especially in the african-american community like i know for the most part with this topic of
00:47:42.260
transgender this and sports issue uh we're on the same page they're not into it at all hell no
00:47:48.700
yeah but they're silent and to me that's the worst thing is when um they know and they they can't
00:47:55.180
afford to speak up again it's never against the transgender community it's in support of women
00:48:00.580
and if we focus on that so i actually have lost a ton of respect for a lot of those people
00:48:05.500
because they just go like this but then when there's other issues that do go along with the
00:48:11.440
narrative then it's let's go and let's pound the table and pound the fist and and that's the three
00:48:17.380
or four of those guys yeah just decided you know we're not we're not gonna lie anymore and just said
00:48:23.480
what they thought i you can't fire them all you can't that's why i said as at least as women like
00:48:29.540
let's come together and do this because they need us and and we're right well just as a factual
00:48:35.200
matter you're right it's not a it's not some sort of like why'd the first world war start
00:48:40.400
it's can a man become a woman by wishing it so no hashtag science yeah because i'm not that smart
00:48:47.620
but i know i know not either yeah even i can perceive that that's so how long has it been since
00:48:54.040
you left espn august 14th 2023 august oh wow oh just the other day i know yeah oh yeah it's weird
00:49:06.160
because it becomes kind of part of your identity right well of course um i should ask you for advice
00:49:10.900
because it's a even if you know it's the right thing it's still there's still almost traumatic
00:49:17.840
because especially if you loved it yeah you know um but i will say this i haven't missed it
00:49:24.600
right just weird i thought that i would i haven't watched any of i'll watch some games but i i don't
00:49:32.060
watch it because i don't think i realized um just the grind of 28 years in the industry in general you
00:49:39.700
know um but also i did 28 years in the industry i i know that number yeah it's a lot it's a lot a lot
00:49:45.740
and it's it's every ounce of it ups and downs it was such an honor and i you know who knows what's
00:49:51.640
next as far as like you know the next chapter um long term hopefully you know round two but i um
00:49:58.300
i don't know i really feel like i was i was there for a reason you know um probably a reason that i'm
00:50:05.120
not even fully clear on that's right right now and that's a faith thing a trust thing um but i i
00:50:11.240
also it was exhausting the last two years because i i sued the company while i was still on their air
00:50:17.020
yeah usually that doesn't happen it's after you leave a company yeah they try to prevent that from
00:50:22.920
happening i mean again not not what i wanted tucker but um to continue to go on the air every day
00:50:29.300
i got really good at compartmentalizing you know and walking in that building knowing that there are a
00:50:34.620
lot of people who hated me because i was yeah i was speaking and so but i had a job to do and i had a
00:50:39.680
two-hour live show every day to co-host with a great co-host matt berry is the best and the best
00:50:45.360
producers and i was hands-on in every single interview you know for two hours live like
00:50:50.000
highlights and um so it was awesome to be able to to um realize i found a way to compartment put it back
00:50:56.540
here for two hours and be all in um and let go of that fear of my peers who there were a lot who
00:51:04.220
hated me for what i was i was saying and doing um but that that took a toll that took a toll those last
00:51:11.900
two years um and so when it ended it was a relief because to kind of balance that while going on the
00:51:18.620
air um knowing that my bosses hated me it's awful yeah i i i have to say having spent a long time in
00:51:28.440
that business and then you leave and you realize that like not everything is television kind of
00:51:33.460
like there's a whole world out there and it is tv is a bit of a biosphere it's very self-referential
00:51:38.720
everyone in tv watches tv they talk to other people who work in tv they think about tv all the time
00:51:43.840
and i don't think that's the experience of most people on the planet at this point
00:51:47.100
you know what i mean you don't realize how isolated you are when you work in that business and you get
00:51:53.180
out and like actually nobody really cares oh my gosh i'm so glad you said that yeah it's almost it's
00:51:57.840
almost um it's almost like you're brainwashed yeah it's a bit of a cult for sure a little cult
00:52:03.800
and especially in the sports world and especially that espn world because it's the worldwide leader
00:52:08.200
in sports and this is the pinnacle and you think it all revolves around you or your network or your
00:52:12.720
what you're doing and that's exactly what i said to my parents recently there's a whole world out
00:52:17.820
there yes who doesn't give a crap about some at all words anchor and it's beautiful and i'm so
00:52:25.020
excited to continue to learn about that and to just be um it's been awesome to be more present
00:52:31.680
my youngest is a senior in high school like this is it before all three are in college and
00:52:36.040
um you know as a mom and i had all three really close together less than four years and i
00:52:40.840
there were a lot of sacrifices oh yeah um to try to do it all and and be the best anchor and make
00:52:46.560
sure my bosses knew how committed i was which comes across from your work yes i kept getting promoted
00:52:51.320
a new contract so they agreed you know but like that mom guilt that is always there and i know
00:52:56.940
dads have it too but to try to be i was the room mom for all three at the same time you couldn't just
00:53:01.260
do just two or else you don't care about that third kid right so that balance and what a blessing
00:53:06.280
to be able to be so present for my kids most importantly um yes that's number one actually
00:53:13.260
1a was when i reflect back on the actual decision to stand up the night before the lawsuit dropped i
00:53:21.740
went i spoke to each kid separately um and i have two girls and my son's in the middle he's 19 now and
00:53:27.300
i um just said listen i want you to know to all three of them i want you guys to know this is coming
00:53:32.760
and it's going to suck because other things that were public um they were attacked people find your
00:53:39.280
kids on social medias you know yes teachers would say things to my kids like just gross i said i need
00:53:45.120
you to know you don't ever have to defend me ever if someone asks you and you're so inclined i would
00:53:50.340
just say we all have a right to our opinion my mom has hers yes and just leave it at that but don't
00:53:56.400
ever feel the need to defend me and i said i just want you to know i'm sorry for anything that might
00:53:59.760
come your way please let me know but know that i'm trying to do this just for others as well
00:54:04.620
and my son who's the quiet one of the three you know always got sisters yes seen it he looked at
00:54:11.600
me oh this is the only time i get choked up he looked at me and he said mom it's about time you
00:54:17.900
stood up for yourself good for him at the time he was 17 so they see more than we think oh i agree
00:54:25.280
and i thought i was a really good actress and hiding the you know the disappointment and kind of
00:54:31.800
the pain when employers people that you trust and love and are friends with and have had to your home
00:54:37.140
crush you intentionally and um for my kid to say that my son i realized wow i wonder if he's been
00:54:45.520
disappointed that i just took it to to pay the bills and to be safe because it's easier to be quiet
00:54:52.720
so i knew no matter what happened even if i lost the lawsuit even no matter what
00:54:57.800
my kids knew that their mom stood up for what she thought was right and i i i can die knowing that
00:55:08.120
no matter what happens in my future your kids my for me it's my parents and my kids and my god
00:55:13.540
that they're the ones that matter about like what they think of me nobody else does so it was kind
00:55:20.300
of peaceful to go into that lawsuit so when it dropped the next day and it was like
00:55:23.980
i knew my kids were okay well you're blessed then because that's the realization most people
00:55:28.940
have only on their deathbed um and you're very generous to tell your kids they don't need to
00:55:33.700
defend you i told my kids find the heaviest object you can lift and defend me at all costs
00:55:37.760
that's your moral duty or i'm not just kidding for your college just kidding i i never talked i love it
00:55:45.740
well yeah i think you're an amazing person and i am completely convinced whatever you do next will
00:55:50.940
be worth watching and we will be and i'm grateful that you came thank you it means the world that oh
00:55:55.860
i mean it it means the world that you um care so much about this country it's everything as an
00:56:02.560
army kid like what you do and it's been a choice you didn't have to do this you didn't have to continue
00:56:07.320
to stand up and speak truth um you are the role model for me and so many others so thank you
00:56:13.580
thank you well it's been easy and fun but sage steel thank you very much