July 14, 2023

BONUS: Hear Her Sports: Jenny Nguyen and the Sports Bra

1 hour 5 minutes

This is a special bonus episode swap with the excellent woman hosted, women's sports podcast Hear Her Sports.

Every other Thursday, Hear Her Sports host Elizabeth Emery brings you long-form interviews with women athletes and women in the sports world. Elizabeth is an excellent interviewer and her conversations are always engaging and informative. I love the way she brings listeners into the world of the person she's talking to, bringing out the reasons they're so passionate about their pursuits as well as details about what it takes to do what they do so well. And I always find useful takeaways I can apply to my own athletic adventures and to life in general.

The featured Hear Her Sports episode features Jenny Nguyen, founder of the Sports Bra.

The episode as described by Hear Her Sports: Jenny Nguyen picked up a basketball right around the same time she put down her milk bottle. From an early age, people called her a tomboy. Instead of playing with dolls and wearing dresses, she climbed trees and rode bikes. But most of all, she loved to play basketball. That love shaped her whole identity and helped her to fit in all the way through high school.

When she was 19 years old in her first year playing college ball at Clark College, Nguyen ruptured her ACL. She was devastated by the career-ending injury, but stumbled upon a newfound passion: cooking. She cooked all through college, first for her roommate, then for the whole floor and then for the entire dorm. She landed her first kitchen job at age 22 and fell in love with the craft all over again.

After graduating from college, Nguyen enrolled at the Western Culinary Institute in downtown Portland. There she graduated from the expedited program while working full time at a couple of fine dining restaurants. When she was in the kitchen, Nguyen was in her element. The zone. The basketball court and the kitchen have been the only two places she has ever felt like she belonged. Later, she realized that both those places are very male-dominated and that she had struggled, endured and found success in her own way. She went on to work her way up in kitchens for another 15 years, with the last four years as an executive chef at Reed College for Bon Appétit Management Company.

The Sports Bra

The Sports Bra on IG, Facebook, Twitter

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Keep up with Hear Her Sports

Instagram: @hearhersports

Twitter: @hearhersports

Website: hearhersports.com