WELCOME TO THE PARTY! Abby’s Big Secret Reveal with Julie Foudy!

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Attention, party people.

Attention, party people.

Attention, party people.

The party is all to the best.

Okay,

okay, pod squad.

We have a little special episode today, and I just want to be open-hearted and super vulnerable with you right now.

I feel very skided.

I feel excited and nervous, scared and nervous because

I want this to be good.

I want you to really hear and love and fall in love with my friend Julie Faudi as much as I have along the years.

So, of course,

today

to discuss this amazing new project, which by the way, you are hearing about first

Pod Squad.

You are the first people to hear about this project, and everyone will be talking about it in a minute.

So, let's save her this time when it's just us.

The

Julie Faudi is with us today.

Julie Faudi had a sensational 17-year career with the U.S.

women's national soccer team, serving as captain for 13 of those years.

13?

That's a lot.

Good God.

She represented Team USA in four Women's World Cups and three Olympic Games, winning two World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, 1996 and 2004, and an Olympic silver medal 2000.

Following her decorated playing career, Julie became a prominent television analyst and reporter for TNT Sports, NBC Olympics, and ESPN ABC, as well as the host of the beloved ESPN podcast, Laughter Permitted, with Julie Faudi.

In September 2025,

she will launch Welcome to the Party, a video-first women's sports podcast hosted by and with

Abby Womba

and Billie Jean

Kink.

Let's go!

Unbelievable.

Should be illegal, that level of talent and ferocity in one place.

Just illegal.

Look at Julie.

She has a little

Julie.

Julie is blowing party.

What are those called?

Kazoos right now.

Party to her.

Yep, yep, yep.

Welcome, Julie.

Let's go.

Let's go, party people.

I mean, you guys, Pod Squad, just let's take a minute to just really have a moment of silence for Abby Womba, who has, for 480 episodes with me and my sister, been having to be so serious and so quiet and so, and then here.

Abby can do fun things.

Yes.

And that is why Julie is here to save her.

Yes.

Yes.

Abby can do fun things, but she hasn't been allowed for so many years until

here she goes, Julie and Abby hitting the podcast streets with something so exciting.

I'm selfishly so excited.

Let's tell the story of how this all came together.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I'm pumped.

I'm with you, Amanda.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Yeah.

All right.

How did it all come together, Abs?

Yeah.

All right.

So, babe, as we all know, you retired in 2015 and you really decided to take a big intentional step away from sports at that time because you, as you say, had a whole lot to heal from.

Yeah.

Right.

So tell us and tell the pod squad about the conversation in the car that you and I had four months ago on our way to the Angel City game.

Okay, so it was the first Angel City game of the season.

And I was excited because,

first of all, the women were going to play and I knew I was was going to see Jules.

We had like an event that we were going a little bit early to the game for.

And basically I was talking to you about like how I was ready to get back into the sports world again.

I could feel like in my body the excitement and joy that I used to feel around it, which was really exciting.

And then, you know, on the car ride there, we were just talking about how it's been 10 years, essentially.

since I stepped away, like how important that time was for me.

It was like intentional.

Like I needed a little bit of a break.

I needed to heal my body, my mind, and my spirit and figure out like kind of what it all meant.

And I got to talking like about Julie and how much fun she is because I knew I was about to see her.

And every time I get together, it like reminds me

of everything that I loved about the game.

Right.

And so you turned to me and you were like,

Every time you talk about Julie, you come to life.

What if you and Julie like did something together?

So fast forward 30 minutes right yeah today game after 30 long minutes of contemplation yeah

we find ourselves well 45 years and 30 minutes yeah

we find ourselves in like this is the first time i'm hearing the full origin story so thank you for this glenny too so we find ourselves in like the little like waiting area suite that we were gathering prior to the game because they were honoring us at this angel city game and i remember like i walk right up to julie i mean, who had happened to be chatting right next to Billie Jean King, like, no big deal, folks.

Okay, Tio, can I interrupt real quick?

I just want you to realize we're doing this halftime rehearsal for the U.S.

Women's National Team, 99ers, U.S.

Women's National Team, and Billie Jean King is part of it.

And so we had been in this suite pregame.

You never, honestly, ever get a moment where it literally was me, Billie Jean, I call her the kinger, me, the kinger, and Alana Kloss, her wife, on the couch together, having this like really deep conversation.

Whoever gets that time with Billie Jean?

The woman is circumnavigating the globe like every other week.

And there we are, the three of us having this amazing, quiet moment.

And

I will tell you what we were talking about after Abby comes to us.

Yeah, and so I step in and I like walk up to Jules and Jules kind of comes over to me.

And I just basically say, like, I think I'm ready to get back into sports, like, but I would only want to do it with you.

And yeah.

And then Jules, what did you say to me?

I can't remember.

I think I blushed.

I was like, wait, what?

Okay, then let's go.

Let's do something.

And we both were like, should we do a podcast?

And literally, true story, as Abby says that, she's standing there.

Billy and I had just been talking about like Billy wanting to get into the podcast world.

And she didn't want to do her own podcast because that felt like a lot, but she wanted to get in the podcast world.

And I was like, shut up,

let's go.

So it was like this crazy freaking moment that the three of us end up in the same moment, like in the same room.

It feels like Jules is like the only person I would ever want to do this with.

That's true.

And then like Billy is also having this sidebar conversation with Julie about the same exact thing.

It was fucking strange.

It was just weird that this is all happening.

It was the universe definitely talking.

For sure.

Yes.

Wow.

Okay.

So

talk to us a little bit.

Like, let's just freeze that moment in time.

The universe has put you all in this room and then decided that all of you are going to discover simultaneously that you need to create a women's sports show.

And you're all so busy that it had to happen within 30 seconds on that couch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Abby, I just want to hear you talk about Julie for a minute because I know what Julie is to you, but I want the pod squad to understand what is it about Julie that made her the only person you wanted to get back into the sports world with?

Well, there's a million reasons, but I think that the one that kind of covers all of the bases is that Julie is like that filter that like turns.

the picture brighter on your phone.

You know, like she's like, oh, she's the bright

setting.

I'm gonna

cry again.

She's like, athletes don't do this.

I know.

She's like the one that like.

We don't talk like this.

Every time you walk into an environment with Julie, she's always surveyed the crowd in a way, like the surveyed the room and she's making sure everybody's included somehow.

She's using her like personal energy.

to energize the group.

I mean, I just remember being a young kid walking into those first meal rooms with like the full-on senior women's national because she's your captain, like you're she's like your idol.

Like, that's what, yeah, she's my mentor.

She's the my leadership mentor, the person that I looked up to, the person that I kind of tried to completely emulate.

So, I, I,

I've written books and like let's hope not on the field, but yes, I get the other part.

But, like, there is just a way that Julie has about her that draws you in and it makes you want to have,

it makes you want to reach into the childlike part of yourself and be.

I don't know, it just reminds me of rec league.

Like, it reminds me of like my favorite teammate that I couldn't wait to see on my rec league team.

And like, she was the one that was like, okay, bringing everybody together, like, okay, and like, putting your hand, okay, party people.

Literally, that's that was what I called them all.

Let's go, party people.

Yeah, everybody come in.

Like, that's how she would, that a reason why we're going to be calling our listeners and community party people is because that's literally what Julie called all of us into a huddle.

She'd go, party people, listen up or party people, bring it in.

So when you were a little soccer player on the national team, Julie was your captain.

Yeah, I was 24.

Julie was a little bit older than me and was the senior captain,

basically ran the ship.

And by the way, like.

At the time, women's sports was having a moment.

They just had won the 99 World Cup.

I was just very, it was, I was very impressionable at the time.

And Mia Hamm was on our team and Brandy Chastain was on our team, big personalities, people, the way that the world looked in on our team.

And to be able to continue to have a team philosophy,

that is a miracle.

And Julie was the creation of that.

She was like the bedrock of making sure that those two, the real quote-unquote stars of the team were also treated as the same like the rest of us.

And then was able to unify everybody in this like really unique, fun, playful,

energizing way.

Okay, now you're really taking these phones.

I can't handle the feelings.

This is going to be so funny.

I can't handle this.

I would have not lasted 400 and some episodes on We Could Do Our Things.

I was like, oh my God.

Okay.

Let me just tell you about Abby because when Abby said, do you want to do this?

Right.

It literally, my response was, hell yes.

I would love to do something with you because Abby is like

the first impression I had of Abby when she's this young kid who comes into this national team who's already won this huge World Cup in 1999.

That was kind of culture-shattering, of course, because of that moment and Brandy taking her top off and getting naked.

And she's on the cover of every magazine.

And all these things are happening around the team.

So you can imagine when younger kids come into that, there is this very overwhelming feeling, and

they retreat into this, you know, quiet space and, and there's not a lot of confidence.

Abby, in three words, was

most fabulous puppy, I would say.

She comes bouncing in.

She's like this incredible best puppy ever.

She comes bouncing in and literally it'd be like Mia and Brandy and I and Lil and all the you know veteran group having a conversation and she like sit right in the middle of it and like get straight into the conversation.

Just cuddling your lap, turning to the teacher face in a quiet moment when Abby wasn't there.

And I was like, oh my God, this kid, Abby, I love so freaking much.

She has my energy, my like playfulness, and she's young.

Like, you don't get that from young kids.

She wasn't shy.

She was out there.

She was bold and she played like that too, of course, as we know.

So from day one, I was like, yes, yes.

So when she asked, because we have so much fun together, literally we laugh all the time.

I was like, hell yes.

And then when we came up with the name, it was like, okay, let's go.

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Can I tell you just a side, like a little side story?

So one of the first gifts that I felt so,

I just felt so touched that they did this for me.

They gave me a gift, the National Teamers,

and the gift read,

help.

I'm talking and I can't shut up.

And this is the first time I ever knew or started to learn about

letting other people talk and just listen.

This was my first way into it.

And it was actually, it's funny because it's like a backhanded, like, you know,

comment.

I'm not going to comment on it.

I'm just

going to give you a t-shirt.

That's it.

Yeah, it was a t-shirt.

That was during the time when they had that commercial.

It's like, help, I've fallen and I can't get up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this woman was like pressing some, you know, emergency button.

help i've fallen i can't get up and so we had this custom t-shirt made for her that says help i'm talking and i can't shut up i know julie can i just tell you just really loved it so much that shirt has been brought up in couples therapy between me and abby we had a moment where i was talking about interrupting and abby was like well i don't know i i've never heard this before this is the first time i've ever heard no one's ever said this to me before this is your problem that i talk too much and i was like, well, I feel like I remember a t-shirt.

Yeah.

Anyway, your entire team presented to you.

I know.

It's so funny, but like, I actually felt so touched.

I know.

That's so sweet.

Because you got a sound.

You're like, these people know and get me.

That is true of me.

So good.

Okay, clearly.

It had to be you.

Abby, it had to be Julie.

Julie, it had to be Abby.

What is it about Billie Jean King that it had to be her as well

oh my god you go can i start on this i have days i could spend on this i'm trying to channel my best billie jane king with these glasses i couldn't find my red ones that would have been really on point oh literally too we saw her glass case at our shoot the other day

the reveal of all her glasses and they're all in one case it's like this fabulous 007 briefcase that like opens up and then it opens up again and then it opens up again it's incredible and we were like

i took a picture of abby going

oh my gosh it was awesome and it felt like you were in on something like important she's like i need it what glasses go with my outfit and he comes over and you look and it's like

it was really sweet

she goes oh you're getting an inside look at all my glasses we were like this is amazing okay i have known billie jean king for 30 years

and

Abby talks about me being a mentor to her in this leadership space.

Billy was that for me.

And 30 years ago, I got invited, and I'm going to give this the short version of this.

We will give it much longer on the pod at one point on Welcome to the Party.

But I got invited to this small round table of like leaders in different sports.

So volleyball, basketball, tennis.

So the Kinger is there telling her story about how women's tennis in the 70s had to break away from the men and the guts it took to do that and having to unify everyone to do that.

And this is now, this is mid-90s when we, I have been on the national team for, you know, eight years and we're getting tired.

We're getting tired of $10 a day per diem.

We're getting tired of not making enough money to survive.

Like, how are we going to keep doing this?

We're either going to have to get a job or we're going to have to quit, whatever.

And so she tells that story, which is very much like our story.

And I say to her, I have this like epiphany.

I'm like, Billy, this is our story.

This is our story.

And I thought she was going to be like, yeah, I know, it's hard.

And she looks at me and she's like, Faudi,

what are you doing about it?

And I was like,

I don't know.

I don't know.

What do you mean?

You, you, the players, you get the team together.

You're flying to them tomorrow, right, for a camp.

I'm like, yeah.

And this is how she talks.

You get them together and you tell them, enough, enough.

We're going to change this.

We're going to change this now.

You get them together and then you keep them together.

You unite them and you fight.

You fight together.

I was like, okay, okay.

So I literally left that, got on a plane, flew.

They were offering us another $10 contract.

And I was like, listen up, party people.

We are not effing signing this contract because I was just with Billy, Jade, effing King.

And she told us not to.

That was the first day I met her was the next day we were supposed to sign this contract.

That was the start of the equal pay fight.

She was the catalyst.

And we were at the time fighting for equitable pay, better resources, more marketing, more more staff right can we just have a massage therapist sweet jesus right like all of this stuff and

the best thing about it though is billy wasn't like hey good luck nice to meet you not going to talk to you for another 30 years she would check in every two weeks she would call and be like faudi kinger what you got for me tell me what's going on

and She did that with every single sport.

She is the thread that runs through women's sports history for honestly the last four decades.

It is insane.

This woman is a gift.

She is such a gym, Billie Jin King.

So, when she said yes to doing the podcast, Abby and I did a,

but like the same universe, the women's sports goddess that is shining upon this world that put you all on that couch, put you in that room 30 years ago the night before you had to go sign that contract.

Like, if it had even been a week before, you might have lost a little bit of your, you know,

motivation.

Yeah.

Yes.

I was on that plane flying to the camp and my mind was going like a million miles an hour.

I was just having all these like, holy shit, this is the moment.

This is the moment we stop bitching about it and we say enough is enough.

And why did I not think that we had this voice?

I didn't think we had the leverage.

She gave us the license to say, go.

go do it.

Go change it.

Go.

And I was like, heck yes.

So Billy, and then the fact that she would constantly, this was for years.

It took us years, as we know, she would check in.

She would say, in this moment, this is what I think you should do.

This is what we did.

This is what we learned.

Ah, I mean, indebted to that woman forever.

Wow.

Amazing.

Okay.

So this is so crazy.

I'm freaking out inside.

Because I'm in my head thinking, I know that you guys are going to fix like women's sports media with this podcast, but now I'm thinking maybe you're gonna fix the whole world.

I hope you do.

Maybe.

It's such a small goal.

Like, this is the moment that we need this sort of vibe.

Like, Julie keeping them unified.

Like, Billie Jean, like, this is how we fucking do it.

Like, I know that you love Julie because, like, I do love Julie.

I know you do.

But, like, just listening to Julie talk like that.

Oh, and I forgot about that.

You guys both were like, so, I just was looking at your face and I was like, yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about.

This is how i felt because the way julie explains this is how she explained it to me right when i stepped into the national team because the lore and the story that gets told year after year of how it all happens

who is

who would you say is like the angela davis jane fonda glorious dynam that's your Billie Jean kid exactly got it i'm getting it i'm getting what you're laying down exactly and so like to me and julie to be able to work with the person who started it all, to me, it's like not only the greatest honor of my life and like of my entire career to be able to work alongside Billy and to know her and to listen to her and to be able to archive her

voice and her thoughts and to build community with her around her.

But also, it's a way for me to try try to like give back to her what she laid for me.

Like that is an important, like it feels kind of full circle in that way for me.

And I want a community to be in

conversation with her too, to be able to do that themselves.

Because when we all sit in the stands now watching women's sports, It didn't just happen this way.

It was a long, drawn out,

intentional path that she helped not just the world in tennis, but she's been helping all of the women's sports in almost every capacity get to where they are right now.

So, that's through the power of a collection.

And that is not an overstatement.

Like, literally, she has helped every women's sports.

She would go down the line at her women's sports foundation, which she founded with her first $5,000 check that she won in tennis.

She goes and founds a foundation instead of like taking it and going to buy something.

She's like, Let's just start a foundation for women's sports.

But she would go down the line, every gala I do, every year, she goes and checks in with every athlete as they're walking to stage to go do this grand march we do.

It's crazy.

Oh my gosh.

I love her.

All right.

So this is clearly magical that the three of you are together in this.

Tell us, tell the pod squad, what is welcome to the party?

What is special about it besides you three?

What are you doing?

And also, can you just reiterate why it's called welcome to the party Party in that language?

Okay, Jules, before you get into this, I just want to say that it's a sports show.

It's going to be podcast, video, live events.

And Jules, you can get into the kind of things about Welcome to the Party.

How did we come up with the name?

You tell us about the name.

Yeah.

Well, the woman that I did Laughter Permitted with, Lynn Ozawi, who was producer and co-host with me, we were throwing all these,

you know, podcast titles out there, names.

And all of a sudden, one day we were talking about the fun we have and the joy that sports brings.

And she goes, I got it.

Lynn goes, I got it.

It's called Welcome to the Party, people.

Like, welcome to the party.

And we were like, yes.

Yes, it is.

Thank you.

And every other one that was thrown out there, we were like,

and then we were like, party.

Oh, that side.

Party.

Yes.

So, and the party, of course, is women's sports and all are invited.

Literally, if you've been been at the party for a very long time thank you if you're new to the party maybe some on the pod squad maybe many on the pod squad are new to the party or maybe you have fomo because you've heard everyone talking about the party you are all welcome to this party and that's going to be the really cool thing because first and foremost we want to build a community and

As Abby talks about a lot, and I talk about a lot, women's sports has given us so much.

But when we go to an event and we're sitting there, as Abby said, so excited for Angel City Games, or, you know, you're at any women's sports event, you feel

joy, you feel affirmation, you feel inclusivity.

It's like all these things that I want in my life that maybe I'm not getting right now with the craziness of this world.

And that's the community that we want to build and the party we want to have where it's equal parts smart and thoughtful and ridiculous and fun and all around women's sports.

Yeah.

And I think one of the things that's important about this to me too is that like

I sometimes experience frustration and a little bit of like silo loneliness inside of like my women's sports fandom.

Like where do you find the stuff and how do you watch and where are the games and who's playing?

Like sometimes I feel a little bit overwhelmed by not knowing and we want to create a community and a place where people can go to for that.

Right.

So another big thing that we're kind of like hoping and dreaming up is essentially to be the sport, a little bit more sports center than book club, right?

Like, we want to talk about the highlights of the week.

We want to have like, we want to talk about the incredible sports stories that are happening, talking to the actual people who are building women's sports, talking to the sports fans.

We're going to be watching with them.

We want to like have watch parties, go to the women's sports bars all over the country, live watch with us.

Yeah.

And it's not just going to be soccer this is all sports because essentially like we also want to like celebrate elevate and educate but the most important thing about that is we all want to have a shit ton fun doing it yes like that is we want it to be fun because when we go to these games it is that like it's it's so exciting to see 20 plus thousand people at a women's sporting event Like Julie said, oh, look, she says, welcome to party.

I want ridiculous party hats.

That's all he he wants.

I'm just going to keep like, as Abby talks and is talking stuff, I'm just going to like the whole time, I'm like, I'm just going to go from party hat to party hat.

She's y'all changing into various party hats as we go.

That one says,

yep, this is the party on her head.

That's what it says right now.

We got a lot.

I'm going to save them for the show, but.

It's going to be a shit ton of fun.

Yeah.

And like Julie was mentioning.

That was another podcast title.

Shit ton of fun.

A shit ton of fun was definitely.

it.

We'll make a segment out of it.

And it's going to be fast-paced.

We're going to have a lot of fun doing it.

It's not going to be, you know, just Julie and I sitting and talking.

Like, we're going to have segments.

We're going to have games.

We're going to compete on our show, which is going to be really fun.

Oh, man.

Shop clock.

And Julie was mentioning this a little bit ago, but, you know, we can't hype enough how much we want this to be for everyone, right?

Everyone is welcome.

We know that there are some folks that might feel like that they don't know enough

to be invited to the party.

We're going to really try to explain things and make it as inclusive as possible so that if you have absolutely no background in sports, you are welcome with us.

We will help.

teach you because guess who we have with us that might come and do some some guest appearances.

She's not agreed to this, folks.

I'm putting her on the spot.

I love that.

She was like, who is someone here?

Yeah, it's going to be Glennon.

She's going to come on our show every once in a while.

And I think that we're probably going to have a segment that has Glennon on that is like, explain this to me.

Or sports are hard.

Sports are hard.

You know how you always have like the insider's view?

We could have when Glennon comes on, the outsider's view.

Yes.

Yeah.

I actually like that.

Instead of like, you know, deep down insider take, it's like Glennon's outside take.

It's like sports.

Why,

because sometimes when people know a lot about a thing, they think they're being inclusive and they are not.

It's like when I try to people say, Oh, anyone who can read can cook, and so I'm like, Okay, I'm amazing at reading.

And then I pick up a recipe, and it's like, number one,

Julian

something.

And I'm like, Well,

the fuck is that?

Like, that's not reading.

Now I have to go to a dictionary.

So what I'm saying is, or like you go to, you just want some spiritual shit.

And so you go to church.

And then it's all this language that, and that's how sports feels to me.

It's like, I can see the thing on the TV.

I can enjoy balls running around, but the words you're using is like making it a cool kids club.

Yeah.

That the barrier to entry is some kind of freaking vocabulary that I haven't learned yet.

And that makes me feel left out.

We We are not the Cool Kids Club.

Not a Cool Kids Club at all.

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Okay, I have two quick questions about this because clearly if someone is sitting there and they're like, I'm a sports person, they're like, Done.

They have already gone to your feed and followed it because they're so excited because they're like, give this to me intravenously.

Yeah.

Some people will say, I'm not a sports person.

Do you think it's true that some people aren't sports people, or do you think they just haven't been

included in sports?

I would like to know about that.

Second part.

Okay.

Because

you don't have to love the X's and O's of soccer or basketball or tennis to care about the person playing.

So we're also going to make you care about the people by giving really fun interviews.

And it's going to be interesting instead of like, oh, let's draw out this play.

It's going to be like, oh my gosh, let me tell you about this goal and how, and why this is so amazing.

So I think the fun, the getting to know some of these players in a different way, because I think we will have Abby and the Kinger and I, the ability to pull out a lot of fun stuff from them will make you a little more curious to watch, even if you don't understand like what the heck is, you know,

what's an alley oop?

Why do I have to worry, you know, about if it's, you know, and what's an and one

in other sports.

So I do think we will not get stuck in the terminology and actually bring out the humanity because the fact is women's sports, this is the thing I love about women's sports and women athletes, female athletes, is yes, there is winning, but there's always winning and.

It's winning and social justice.

It's winning and making this world a better place.

It's winning and equality, winning and inclusivity.

Like these women.

aren't just playing.

They're playing for something bigger than just standing on top of a podium.

That's right.

And when you talk about what Billy was telling you about and how you guys have changed all of sports because of that sort of collective approach and sticking together, my brain goes to everybody, every woman or person on the planet can use that model in their place.

Like, this is about everybody.

This is how in publishing, people can get better deals.

This is how in every industry.

You learn from Billy and Julie and Abby and take this mindset into your place what women's sports has done is what everybody can do to rise yeah i love that are y'all gonna do any men's sports oh oh i'm very

glad that you asked that you know i'm just wondering if i'm gonna have to forward through any of it so i'm just curious

look

i i've been throwing this around with julie and billy and i do think that we are going to be including a DEI segment that is going to be dedicated to the men, the men's sports, the men's energy.

We'll be getting what, 5%?

Yeah, well, I think it's actually risen a little bit.

Special interest story.

Yeah, yeah, special interest.

I think that it's the right thing to do because I also think it's really important that the world actually hears from real athletes talking about sports because we and our opinions and our viewpoint and our lens is very important.

And I think that we're smart and we know sports and we know what we like and we know how to talk about it.

And so, yeah, we're going to include them in our DEI segment of the month.

Once a month.

Yeah, once a month.

I love it, you guys.

I love it.

But we also will watch.

We want to do like watch parties on like Men's World Cup.

How fun would that be?

But like watching it from a women's lens too and watching the game and commentating on the game from a women's lens as well.

So we think that would be fun as well.

So you guys are talking about like actual

when you create this community that you're kind of doing life with through women's sports because it's really all freaking week, right?

Like there's always games on.

Yeah, there's women's sporting events happening all the week as long.

So then you guys are actually planning to

have events where you're meeting up with your community and watching games together at games, at sports bars.

Oh my God, that is so

fun.

One of my goals actually is to purchase tickets around the country so that our community members can be given those free tickets to go literally go watch women's sporting events around the country and and hopefully around the world one day but and that we could go with them too yeah i would love to

we'll start a party section in every damn stadium out there oh i mean julie your section

the pod squad could understand wherever julie is sitting is the party section okay at angel city games it's just like you can tell where she is because everyone around her is yelling and screaming and yeah okay

so yeah

what i know about you is you've been talking to me about this every single night for four months um yes is that when you

started dreaming this up

the welcome to the party plan, you weren't just thinking about what the world needed, which you have always said is more attention on women and women's sports, but you are also thinking about what women athletes needed.

You're thinking a lot about your friends.

What is your secret plan here, Abby Wombach?

I'm okay.

I think that because of my history at winning gold medals and world cups and all the things, I don't want this to just be a show.

I want it to have bigger meaning in a way.

And the pattern in women's sports, because

this is just true, is we do the work by barely getting by.

The world falls in love with us and then they start paying to come watch us.

And then the execs who have absolutely nothing to do with women's sports step in and then take all the profits.

Yes.

Right.

So what I've always wanted.

what Billie Jean and Julie have always wanted and what we fought for basically our entire lives is that the people who profit from the women's sports are the ones who built it.

Amen.

Okay.

And so that is what Julie and I did for soccer and is what Billie Jean did for tennis and basically all of women's sports.

And now it is truly what Billie Jean, myself, and Julie are going to do for sports media,

which is very exciting.

So we want to create a media network, a media business that offers a home for athletes, that the athletes athletes will own.

It will be an athlete-owned network.

Wow.

And

it's revolutionary because we are trying to flip the script, much like how some of the women's ownership teams in some of the leagues are treating their women's league ownerships.

We really want...

the money and the profits to go to the people who built it.

And yeah.

How do you feel like it works now?

Like explain to the pods.

Okay, so this is how it works.

Essentially, it's a pyramid scheme.

Like I said, a few execs at the top figure out how there is money in women's sports.

Okay.

The money is there now.

Then they hire our friends to come in with their expertise and their brilliance and their platforms to bring in the money.

Then my friends basically keep barely any of that money.

Yes.

And the executives take all of it.

Yes.

And if this sounds familiar, it is.

This is how women's sports have worked as well.

I mean, and how capitalism works.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Until

people like me.

Have I seen this story before?

I've seen this film before.

Until people like me, Julie, and Billie Jean, right?

We come in and we say, how do we turn this upside down?

Sports media works this way.

Now we are here to fix it.

That is the dream.

That is the plan.

And we're going to fix it in the same way Billie Jean King helped us fix women's sports.

Building a network that is built as a collective, not a pyramid scheme.

And this network will be owned by the athletes.

Our power in the market will come from our solidarity.

And we will build this together and reap the rewards together.

Basically, we are removing the man without becoming the fucking man.

What?

Woo!

Oh my God.

And also, that allows you to make, it isn't just about

keeping the credit and the funds from the people who built.

It also allows you to make the choices that are in the best interests of the ecosystem, the best interests of the athletes, the best interests of the people who are creating it.

Instead of in so many of these worlds, it's like because somebody at the top is writing a small check, they get to be the boss of you literally and say, oh, shoot, our hands are tied, but we sure would like to do the right thing, but we just can't, which forces people to not be super in integrity with what they might want to do or the places they might want to move their show or whatever.

Like that's giant that you get to, if you call the shots,

you get to make the right shots for your listeners and for your

fellow athletes that are building this.

Yeah.

And you get to do what you want to do.

You get to partner with who you want to partner with.

You're not restricted to, oh, we can't actually do that interview because it doesn't work with, you know, the

holder of this podcast or, you know, the company we're associated with that sponsors this podcast.

So I love, and that has been very freeing for me as well, to be like, what do we have this blank canvas?

And

for all these athletes that for so long, and what I love about the current generation of these young, these young athletes is they're like, you tell me no?

Okay, I'll go build that shit.

I'll go start that shit.

Like, we never thought that way.

That's why I'm so proud of Abby.

She's like, no, we can do something better here that unifies all of us, which we learn through Billy to actually build a better system.

And again, when she said, are you interested in that?

I was like, yes.

Yeah.

I mean, look, I think we all know that women's sports has arrived.

Billions are being pumped in.

Investors are lining up.

Networks are kind of scrambling right now.

And the world has finally woken up to the power of women's sports.

So everyone is profiting from women's sports media except the athletes who built it.

And that's what we want to build is the place where the athletes can come and they own it, they build it, they get to have the IP, they get to have the ideas, they get to be in the power seat, because I think so much of what I've experienced throughout my time as an actual athlete was you didn't have any leverage.

You didn't have any say, like you were talking about, Jules, you had to be just go with the flow, didn't matter.

And I think that we want to give the power back to the actual athletes.

And I think that

the way that the media landscape is set up is that everybody's a little bit siloed.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no.

Why don't we collectively come together?

Right.

So me, Julie, and Billie Jean are collectively coming together, bringing our communities together, bringing our brands together, and bringing our ideas together to create this flagship podcast, Welcome to the Party.

We're going to bring ourselves together, and then we're going to continue to onboard another show,

another talent, another athlete who owns their own material and has a piece in the network that we're building and has real ownership and actual equity stake in the media company that we want to build.

If we did it together, when we do it together, rather.

I believe that we will have like the most profound epic roster of shows, of talent who believe in the mission, who know, right?

Like our women's soccer team knows what it's like to need to stick together to collectively eventually,

Julie and I never saw it, but to eventually see equal pay actually happen.

That happens because of complete and utter unity year after year, generation after generation.

And I feel excited.

Jules, tell them about the naming of the podcast network.

What are we going to name it?

Oh, this is so fun because we do want to the power to the party people, people, to the community out there.

So

we were kind of batting around names and then Abs and Glennon had the brilliant idea of like, why don't we just ask the party people?

And I was like, yes, why don't we just ask the party people?

So we are giving the power to the people to

actually name this network.

How fun is that going to be?

Oh my God, we're going to have so many hats coming out of this one.

We're going to have names for days.

And that's the thing that is, I think, most exciting to us:

we know there's this robust women's sports community, and we can keep building it, and keep enhancing it, and keep inspiring people in so many great ways.

And we want your feedback, we want to hear from you, we want to hear who you want to listen to on the pod, who you want on the show, what topics we should be talking about, all those things, what the network should be called.

Jeez, the ultimate power.

Yeah, well, we want to,

I think it's important that like our party peoples that come and want to come watch with us at our live events that want to listen to us that watch our youtube channel like

these are the people that have built women's football exactly and women's sports right these are the people who have built women's sports so let's be real of course like This is an equal parts relationship here, athlete and community.

And that's why it's so important to build the community while also building the actual

floor mat of the show and the guests and whatever.

Like we want to give the power to the party people.

And I just think it's so fun to let them name this athlete owned media network.

It's going to be awesome.

It feels so similar to when you're talking about like 30 years ago and you're sitting in that room and it's like, what are you going to do?

And you're like, it didn't occur to me that we had the leverage, that we just could go fucking do that and say it.

And it feels like what you all are doing right now, you're looking at the media landscape, you're looking at the status quo, and you're just deciding to do that.

You have the leverage because you're taking it and claiming it.

And it feels really exciting.

It feels like if you wait till someone gives you permission to have leverage, then you're not doing the claiming you need to do to actually make it your own.

And I don't know, it feels so exciting.

It's like Taylor's version.

Yes, I said that this morning.

That's why I said that this morning.

I was like, is Taylor's version a good name for the network?

Abby's like, absolutely not.

But it's also, it makes, I know it's emotional because it, you know, watching the young ones play the soccer now and do all the fancy things that you guys wanted for them and didn't see yourself.

And you built the thing that they stepped into.

And I just have like, goosebumps having the knowing that you're doing the exact same thing right now, that you're building a thing.

And through your guys' blood, sweat, and tears of however this thing plays out and is built, it's probably the thing that they're going to step into after their careers or during their career to you're doing to the media world exactly what you did to sports and you're building the thing for them to come to.

And that is what you guys do.

That is what you do on the planet.

Yeah.

I mean, look, in every realm, since I've retired that I've like tried to learn in my retirement, whether it's like learn how to calendar, because I didn't know how to calendar, or like learn how to like budget my checking account and like, you know, create and build businesses and whatnot, like there's been a lot of learning curve.

But I think one of the most important things that I have learned is that it is not as complicated as the world who you pay to do things makes things seem.

That's right.

Right.

Right.

And the thing that I know in my bones is they keep us separated so that they can keep reaping the reward on the fear that they draw from us that like, oh, you don't know what you're doing.

This is too complicated.

It is not.

What we need to do is we need to bring everybody together and to unify together under one umbrella so that we can actually talk to each other and say, no, no, no, this is what I've learned.

It is not that hard.

Here's what you're going to do.

Here's what you're going to do.

Here's what you're going to do.

Again, just like 30 years ago, when she was like, this is what we did.

This is what we learned.

And you can build this template that, and again, the most important thing is that when you bring good people together with good intentions, who are good humans, who want to build something, like literally build it.

It's not about an ego.

Abby and I don't need to do this, right?

Billy certainly doesn't need to do this.

Like,

this is something that's so joyful and fun.

And we want to put good back out there with good people, then I just think you can't lose.

You're going to be winning with that.

And it's the winning and it's not enough.

Billy's first question, true story.

Yeah.

I was like, how do we make this the number one damn podcast?

I was like, oh my God, I love her so much.

Yeah.

It actually, I needed that because I haven't been in a winning mentality culture.

My family doesn't, like, there's not like the huge competition here.

And so when she was like, how do we win at that podcast video show?

And I was like, that is a great question.

I'm going to think a lot about that.

Because I also too want to win.

She goes, give me the ball.

Get him marry the ball.

Give me the ball.

Give me the ball.

Well, I, on a personal note, I have not, I know that you're going to win because of the amount of joy, real

joy that you are deriving from this.

And

I haven't seen you, Abby, this

full of life and joy and just exuberance and excitement in a long time.

And it's just so exciting to watch you exactly where you should be doing exactly what you should be doing.

And

what a joy.

It's so exciting.

And also, all of you should know that they're not just dreaming and planning this.

If you could see the last four months that they have spent deconstructing the entire media industry and how advertising works and how production works and how every single piece of this works, because the knowledge of all of that is power.

So they are ready.

They know exactly what needs needs to be done.

The second that an athlete steps into this ecosystem, they have every single angle covered.

It's been amazing.

White glove service is what we're going to call it.

You come in, we will take care of you.

We got you.

So fun, too.

All right.

This is what you do, party people.

Okay.

Well done, Glennon.

Right now.

They're pod squatters, but they're all fucking party people.

Let's go, party people.

The pod squatters are going to be so happy to have a party to go to.

You're invited.

Come to

all invited.

But you'll know the pod squatters because we will all be together in the corner of the party.

Attention party people.

Attention party.

It's the best kind of party because you can go somewhere outdoorsy if you wish, but you can also be fully participatory in the party in Doorsey in your soft pants.

That's

in your soft pants.

So right now, party people, go follow and subscribe to welcome to the party okay you guys have to do this this is the thing that makes you make sure you're going to get all the invitations to the parties okay go follow and subscribe to welcome to the party so that you never miss an episode or an invitation the first episode is going to drop on thursday september 4th we will all be there okay We Can Do Hard Things is going to be taking a quick pause with no new episode on Tuesday.

So come back next Thursday, a week from today for something extremely special, which will be the first welcome to the party episode right here in the We Can Do Hard Things feed.

Okay, so party people, we will see you on Thursday.

Oh,

should we go off to the music?

Give them a little, yeah, should we give them a little, a little,

you know, intro to it?

Yeah, attention, party people.

Attention, party people.

Attention, party people.

The party is not to the best.

Welcome to the party.

Woo!

Okay, you guys, it's Abby here.

I have a favor, and and I don't ask much.

And honestly, do we want to disappoint Billie Jing King?

No, we don't.

Would you mind following Welcome to the Party on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok at Welcome to the Party Show?

And if you wouldn't mind taking out your phone right now and following us on wherever you listen to your podcasts at Welcome to the Party, it really would mean a lot to us.

It's going to be so much fun.

I feel like there's been life that's been brought back into my body ever since Julie and I decided to do this many months ago.

And as always,

you all show up for us, and I just am so appreciative.

So, if you want to listen, follow where you can find us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks so much, Pod Squad.

I love you guys.

Bye.

If this podcast means something to you, it would mean so much to us if you'd be willing to take 30 seconds to do these three things.

First, can you please follow or subscribe to We Can Do Hard Things?

Following the pod helps you because you'll never miss an episode and it helps us because you'll never miss an episode.

To do this, just go to the We Can Do Hard Things show page on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and then just tap the plus sign in the upper right-hand corner or click on follow.

This is the most important thing for the pod.

While you're there, if you'd be willing to give us a five-star rating and review and share an episode you loved with a friend, we would be so grateful.

We appreciate you very much.

We Can Do Hard Things is created and hosted by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wombach, and Amanda Doyle in partnership with Odyssey.

Our executive producer is Jenna Wise-Berman, and the show is produced by Lauren Lograsso, Allison Schott, and Bill Schultz.