The guest this week is Sarina Morales of ESPN’s SportsCenter: AM. Here’s some of the stuff we talked about: her absolutely bonkers sleep/life schedule now that she’s on a national TV show from 7 to 10 AM every day (1:47), Sarina and I debate why ANYONE uses SnapChat—hint, she’s in favor of it (4:29), what were her first “Holy Shit!” moments about being on SportsCenter (8:29), how she’s been able to remind herself that despite being new, she belongs (12:57), what it’s been like to learn on the fly on a national television show after coming from a non-on-air job (16:54), we debate the uselessness of small talk, cliches like “neither here nor there” and relationships (19:23), how one video she wasn’t even supposed to make for Nat Geo helped get her discovered, a la Justin Bieber, by a sleepless senior VP at ESPN (25:29), her continual habit of expanding her job way past what she was hired for (28:27), the balancing act of pushing social media content further without going over-the-top or out of her comfort zone (32:22), Sarina goes in detail about just how much work goes into getting SportsCenter ready for 7 AM (39:01), dealing with the stigma that “Women don’t know about sports!” (44:35), dealing with men commenting more on her looks more than what she says (47:29), the double standard that the good-looking man gets fewer nasty comments than the good-looking woman, but that the man can respond sarcastically without being labeled a bitch (50:54), our new app idea, “Whelmed”, where you can leave mildly content/satisfied reviews (55:00), what it’s like to be recognized in person and the slow evaporation of her private life (57:50), Sarina joined Twitter in 2007, back when you had to text to tweet… why? (1:03:40), and Sarina takes her turn to ask me a question, which leads to a somewhat depressing but honest chat about the Spurs, why we take sports so (too?) seriously and why sports are important (1:07:33).
scott spinelli 