The Feist

In this special episode, your Feisty Women's Performance podcast host Dr. Erin Ayala brings together a group of experts on mental health to talk about the science and psychology of stress and collective trauma.

Along with being a sports psychologist & therapist in her own right, Erin also lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota — which has been at the center of the news over the last month since it became the target of the largest immigration enforcement action to date in the U.S. Thousands of federal agents have patrolled the streets and detained residents, and, over this past weekend, shot and killed a second bystander — leading to hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Minneapolis and around the country.

In this tense environment, how do we show up as athletes, as members of our community, as our best and healthiest selves?

Join Dr. Tess Kilwein, Dr. Quincy Guinadi, and Christine Bright as they discuss how these experiences shape mental health and performance, and how you can respond to stress and trauma — whether you're going through it right now with the news or you're dealing with your challenges.

Key Takeaways:

• What is collective trauma? Learn how collective trauma impacts communities and individuals, and why this understanding is crucial for athletes and coaches.

• Recognize that intentional rest in times of stress can be essential for long-term sustainability.

• Know that movement and sport can be powerful tools in community healing.

• Get tips on how to navigate the complexities of wanting to help without feeling performative or overwhelmed, and how to effectively engage in difficult conversations without shame or guilt.

Don't be perfect. Be brave.

Guest Introductions:

• Dr. Tess Kilwein: A board-certified clinical, health, and sport psychologist with expertise in mental performance and athlete wellness.

• Dr. Quincy Guinadi: A postdoctoral resident specializing in identity, mental health, and the experiences of marginalized communities.

• Christine Bright: Lead consultant at the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport, focusing on trauma-informed coaching and community support.

Resources Mentioned:

• Center for Healing and Justice through Sport

• Nothing Heals like Sport Playbook

• "What Happened to You" by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah

• Beyond Ally by Dr. Maysa Akbar

• Find ways to help at standwithminnesota.com

It's the last episode of the year! And Kelly and Sara are closing out the season with a full-on countdown of the best races, records, performances, and picks in women’s sports this year.

From #16 all the way down to our #1 women's sports moment of 2025!

What did we miss? What was your moment of the year? Send us a voice memo at [email protected] and we'll be back in the new year.

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To get you in the cozy holiday spirit, Kelly and Sara are throwing down some of their best women's sports book and movie recommendations.

But, first, this week's women's sports highlights:

• 55 women hit the Olympic Trials qualifying standard at CIM — even though the standard (2:37) is faster than ever! And a shoutout to Molly Born, who won the race in her first marathon, despite a fall in the final straightaway.
• And you should be following SkiMo (ski mountaineering)! Where it all came down to the U.S. vs. Canada for the final Olympic spot. Enter Anna Gibson, world-class trail runner, who was recruited and secretly turned out to be amazing! (It's Kelly's dream.)
• Bonus shoutout to Alysa Liu, who won the Grand Prix in figure skating in her comeback-to-the-Olympics tour.

…like we were saying — a few follow-ups:

• The highest-paid women athletes in 2025. Why are 10 of the top 15 tennis players? Thank you, Billie Jean King.
• The NWSL rejected Trinity Rodman’s contract deal, which is not a good look for the league.
• And the WNBA is still hashing out CBA issues. What's the latest?

Then: Our full list of women's sports book & movie recs

Kelly and Sara are deep in movies-and-books season, which prompted us to pull together some of our Feisty favs. Some of the ones mentioned in the episode:

• A League of Their Own
• Love & Basketball
• Bend It Like Beckham
• Bring It On
• The Cutting Edge
• Personal Best
• Challengers

Sara isn't much of a movie-watcher, but she does love books!

• Good for a Girl, Lauren Fleshman
• Better Faster Farther, Maggie Mertens
• The Longest Race, Kara Goucher
• Money, Power, Respect: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism, Macaela MacKenzie
• Tough Broad, Caroline Paul
• Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, Joan Ryan
• In These Girls Hope Is a Muscle, Madeleine Blais
• We Loved to Run, Stephanie Reents
• Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Favorites, Layne Fargo
• As Good as Gold, Kathryn Bertine
• Stand, Kathryn Bertine
• Tough Broad, Caroline Paul
• Up to Speed, Christine Yu
• Endure, Alex Hutchinson 
• Shoe Dog, Phil Knight
• For kids: Anything from Strong Girl Publishing, plus Molly Hurford's Shred Girls series

What are your recs? What did we miss? Send us a voice memo to [email protected]

Plus, our Feisty Picks of the week!

Chapters:

• 01:10 - The women are getting fast and the depth is getting deep
• 6:50 - SkiMo!
• 18:55 - Let's follow-up on the money
• 37:00 - Our women's sports movie and book recs
• 52:45 - Feisty Picks of the Week

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Kelly and Sara are asking two burning questions this week: Is San Francisco really the top women’s sports town in the world? (The New York Times says so and Kelly agrees.) And: Why in 2025 is Nordic Combined still the *only* sport women aren’t allowed to compete in at the Olympics?

But first, the women's sports highlights:

• Mikaela Shiffrin just won her 104th World Cup race — her third in a row and her fifth of the last six. Why isn't this getting more hype!?
• Is it because there's too many records? How that happened.
• Speaking of: The PWHL set a record for the highest attendance at a women's hockey game in the U.S.

And then a few follow-ups. "Like we were saying..."

• There is adult cross-country! And Ceili McCabe won the Canadian champs in the snow. But the Winter Olympics still don't want to add XC to their events.
• Why the h*ll aren't women allowed to compete in Nordic Combined in the Olympics?!
• And, in the Paralympics, there is no women's sled hockey. Technically, it's co-ed, but only three women have ever competed at the Games.
• What are "whereabouts" violations in doping and why did Canada's most decorated female Olympian get one? Sara explains the logistics of how the system worked when she had to update her whereabouts everyday.
• And yes, The Enhanced Games appears to actually be happening for real.

Then: What Makes a Great Women’s Sports City?

Is San Francisco really the #1 women’s sports city in the world? According to The New York Times (and Kelly), yes. We unpack what actually creates a powerhouse women’s sports environment — fan culture, investment, access, and visibility...

Disagree? Send us a voice memo to [email protected].

Episode Resources:

The stats behind Mikaela Shiffrin's record wins: https://www.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/news/2024-25/a-century-in-numbers-the-stats-behind-mikaela-shiffrin-s-100-world-cup-wins

The top women's sports cities ranked: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6807524/2025/11/18/womens-sports-cities-top-ranked-fans/

A Q&A with the founder of The Enhanced Games: https://feisty.co/p/q-and-a-the-founder-of-the-enhanced/

Episode timestamps

02:58 - Mikaela Shiffrin's record-breaking records

06:03 - Are there too many records?

11:28 - Put cross-country in the Winter Olympics!

16:37 - Why is there no women's Nordic Combined in the Olympics?

19:50 - And no women's sled hockey in the Paralympics...

28:30 - Understanding whereabouts violations in anti-doping

41:00 - WTF the Enhanced Games

46:42 - What is the best women's sports city?

52:02 - Our Feisty Picks of the Week

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This week, we have a special guest: mountain bike world champion Samara Maxwell opens up about her struggles with an eating disorder and why she actually thinks it was good that her federation forced her to stop riding — or at least she can understand and agree with it now.

But first, the women’s sports highlights of the week:

• PWHL opening weekend: Vancouver packed in 14,958 fans to watch them take down Seattle—the highest-attended home game in PWHL history.
• NWSL Playoffs: Gotham FC’s Rose Lavelle delivered the lone winning goal. And Kelly confirms the hype in the Bay Area was real. Is it time for the NWSL to end neutral site championship games? Up the salary cap? Did Kelly regret not going to the fame?
• NCAA cross-country championships: Don't let the debate over international recruiting practices mar an amazing race from Doris Lemngole.

Then, we talk with New Zealand’s Samara “Sammie” Maxwell, the first Kiwi to win the UCI cross-country World Cup overall title.

Sammie, who has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder, was told to stop cycling by her federation and then left off the Olympic team because they didn't think she had fully recovered — a decision she appealed. She explains why she appealed the decision, but also why she now believes Cycling New Zealand made the right call. And what can be done to address eating disorders in cycling?

Then, of course, our Feisty Picks of the Week.

Episode resources:

• WADA considers banning Ozempic: https://velo.outsideonline.com/news/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs-ban-sports/
• Climbing introduces policy to combat eating disorders: https://www.climbing.com/news/ifsc-policy-combat-eating-disorders/

Episode timestamps:

• 00:23 - Shoutout to the PWHL & the NWSL Finals
• 18:05 - Kelly explains cross-country to Sara
• 22:36 - What is happening with NCAA recruitment?!
• 32:01 - Samara Maxwell on how she's recovering from an eating disorder and what she wants people to know
• 57:27 - What responsibility do coaches have?
• 01:10:51 - The future of GLP-1s in sports

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Our resident hockey expert joins us to explain hockey to Americans: all things PWHL, Canadian hockey culture, and is ringette a real sport... ?!

But first, the women's sports highlights of the week:

• The NSL playoffs brought in massive economic return for Canada. Now, it's the NWSL's turn: Ranked #8 out of 8, is Gotham FC ruining everyone's brackets?
• We're rooting for winter sports comebacks: Alysa Liu, who took her first Skate America win, and Mikaela Shiffrin, who just won her 102nd World Cup race and her ninth reindeer. Yes, reindeer.
• Then, why the heck can't endurance sports get it together?! A cycling world record that no one bothered to record?

Then it's time to get in the weeds on hockey!

The PWHL is expanding to eight teams (hello, Vancouver and Seattle!) this season. How did we get here? And what's next for the league? Plus, can you build a non-toxic hockey culture?

Plus, our new segment: 'Like we were saying...' with updates on sex testing (yes, again). And our Feisty picks of the week.

Episode resources:

• The Canada Hockey sexual assault case: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/canada-hockey-sexual-assault-case-analysis
• History of women's hockey: https://thecolgatemaroonnews.com/47399/sports/the-pwhl-part-i-the-history-of-womens-pro-hockey/ and https://thecolgatemaroonnews.com/47893/sports/the-pwhl-part-ii-why-the-league-will-buck-the-trend/

Episode timestamps:

00:24 - Soccer playoff highlights

07:05 - Time for winter sports: Why we're rooting for Alysia Liu

09:22 - Mikaela Shiffrin's crash comeback & Lindsey Vonn's Olympic hops

16:43 - Why do triathlon and cycling keep messing up?

30:03 - PWHL expansion and a season preview

36:09 - The weird league ownership structure of the PWSL

39:40 - Hockey's toxic culture?

50:30 Ringette: A Canadian Sport(??)

01:05:19 - Like We Were Saying: Could trans athletes be banned from the Olympics?

01:08:04 Feisty Picks of the Week

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It's coming! Less than 100 days away, with qualification in full swing, this week it's all about the Winter Olympics & Paralympics: What events are women finally getting to do, why is skiing banning Russians, and what the heck is going on with sex testing.

But first — the highlights we loved in women’s sports this week:

• At the Ironman 70.3 World Championships Lucy Charles-Barclay and Taylor Knibb went 1-2 in an epic run battle just four weeks after massive heatstroke in Hawaii. How did they do it?!
• 50-mile, 100km, and 100-mile records all fell at the Tunnel Hill race. What is it about that race? And, hopefully, they don't have to pay for their own drug testing this year!
• And our report from the Female Athlete Research Meeting at Stanford. What Kelly's actually doing differently in her life now. Plus, we hear the legendary basketball coach Tara VanDerveer & Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi about growing up pre-Title IX.

Then, it's all about the Winter Games in Milano.

For the first time ever, women will compete in doubles luge, on the large hill in ski jumping, and in the longest distance in cross-country skiing, the 50km.

Let's talk a little history of women’s ski jumping (only added to the Olympics in 2014!) and the fights athletes are still fighting, literally fundraising to close the gender pay gap. And, of course, the messy politics of this Olympic cycle — from Russia’s ban in skiing to the FIS’s new confusing genetic sex testing policy.

And a new segment: 'Like we were saying...' with updates on a few things. And our Feisty Picks of the week.

Episode resources:

• Once Prohibited, Women’s Ski Jumping Is Set to Take Flight: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/30/magazine/winter-olympics-ski-jumping-women.html
• New reports on the IOC considering a ban on all trans athletes: https://www.thetimes.com/sport/olympics/article/olympic-ioc-transgender-athlete-ban-womens-sports-zhlpfll3b
• Project B Basketball League Says It Has No Saudi Funding: https://frontofficesports.com/project-b-womens-basketball-saudi-arabia/
• And Feisty Pick of the Week running through a blizzard: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQzZ5Q0gL2C/

Episode timestamps:

• 02:59 - Redemption at 70.3 World Championships
• 07:38 - So many ultra world records!
• 18:11 - Our report from the Female Athlete Research Meeting
• 28:22 - A few emerging fueling takeaways
• 37:36 - The history of women's ski jumping being excluded from the Olympics
• 46:40 - Sex testing in winter sports
• 01:04:00 - Feisty Picks of the Week

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How do women’s sports make (lots and lots of) money — without losing their fans or...selling out? Or, screw it, should the make as much money as they can?

This week, Kelly and Sara dig into the money talk — from WNBA labor negotiations and shifting fan dynamics to what happens when women’s sports finally start cashing big checks. How much do female athletes *deserve* to be paid? And can they make more and more money without alienating their fans? How? 

But first — what we loved in women’s sports this week:

• The New York City Marathon: Hellen Obiri smashed the course record in 2:19:55 and a record 59,226 runners crossed the line, making it the biggest marathon in history. Are we in a running boom, or a chasing bucket lists boom?
• And, India wins their first-ever Cricket World Cup! At home. Against undefeated Australia. After an ugly start to the tournament and a wave of online misogyny. This comeback win was massive, a long time coming, and will change the game forever.

And the epic record-breaking $13.8 million prize purse brings us to this week’s big question: How much do women deserve to be paid?

Sara starts by breaking down the WNBA’s ongoing contract negotiations — with players pushing for a guaranteed share of league revenue instead of just a higher salary cap. And then we dive into the weeds of women's sports finances: Right now, fans often identify more with players than teams — but will that stay true as female athletes earn more and more? At what point does a (historically) socially conscious fan base turn against a (fundamentally) capitalist enterprise? If a large portion of your fandom doesn't believe billionaires should exist, then is it even possible to create billionaire athletes and league owners off those fans? Can that new model be built?

Send us your answers in a voice memo to [email protected]

And we close with our Feisty Picks of the Week.

Time Stamps

0:02 - The record-breaking New York Marathon

8:35 - Make it a movie: India wins their first-ever Cricket World Cup

14:45 - How much should women get paid?

26:00 - Balancing making bank and doing good

35:38 - Sponsors and women's sports fans

46:55 - Our predictions for the future of that women's sports growth curve

47:40 - Feisty Picks of the Week

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This week on The Feist, the marathon world record holder gets slapped with a three-year ban. What's to be done about doping?

First, the women's sports highlights this week & what we're watching:

• How did we not realize it was the Gymnastic World Championships? The U.S. had its least medal haul since 2006 and a lot of big names were missing — but a world championship is still a world championship.
• Swimming world records dropped in Toronto, including Katie Ledecky's 800m record and the first woman ever under 50 seconds in the 100m free.
• Four more years of the Tour de France Femmes! (Thanks, Zwift!) And the women finally get Mont Ventoux.
• And why did Kelly have weird stress dreams about running the New York Marathon this weekend? When she's definitely not running the New York Marathon this weekend.

Then, we have a voicemail from our Feisty correspondent with all the details about the Northern Super League playoffs.

And an interview with Mithali Das, who regionally coordinates the women's programs for USA Cricket — and is here to answer all of our Cricket World Cup questions: Why are games eight hours? How is the women's sport growing now? Who will win the semis and finals this week — and take home the massive prize purse?

Then, before the Feisty Picks of the Week, it's time for our in-the-weeds debate: How do we solve doping?

• Marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich is banned for three years after her positive test and some pretty incriminating texts.
• Meanwhile, pro triathlete Imogene Simmonds was cleared of any fault or negligence for her positive test. Yes, her sexual contamination explanation actually makes sense. Is the system working the way it's supposed to?
• And the New York Times article about the prevalence of doping and incentives in Kenya: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/world/africa/kenya-runners-doping.html

Timestamps

• 00:28 - The gymnastics world championships
• 10:26 - Swimming World Records and Four More Years of the Tour de France Femmes
• 25:45 - Feisty correspondent Maya breaks down the Northern Super League and why it's important for Canada
• 33:47 - The Rise of Women's Cricket: USA Cricket coordinator Mithali Das explains it to us
• 52:33 - The big doping news this week and what to do about the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs?
• 1:16:58 - Picks of the week

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The great debate: Do female athletes need Victoria's Secret and MrBeast — or do they need female athletes?

But first, what happened in women’s sports this week:

• A wild triathlon world championship in Wollongong — even if Sara didn't totally understand at first why it was so wild.
• Watch the winning Red Bull Rampage run from Robin Goomes: https://www.tiktok.com/@redbullusa/video/7562279735808773398
• Life Time Grand Prix is locked up and Track Cycling Worlds is starting
• Plus, the new world record at the 24-Hour World Champs and the confusion leading into the race

Then we talk about the ongoing question female celebrities, and especially female athletes face: How much spectacle do they want to embrace? What spectacle is good spectacle? (We are pro spectacle here! But anti bad spectacle!)

World champ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden races 100 random men — and, yes, beats them — for $100K. WNBA star Angel Reese becomes the first athlete to walk the (revamped) Victoria's Secret fashion show. And Athlos shows us how hard it is for an average person to do what the Olympians do.

One of these things felt different than the others...

And, of course, there's the Feisty Picks of the Week!

Timestamps:

• 00:13 - The Intersection of Sports and Fashion
• 00:23 - Understanding the World Triathlon Championships
• 13:31 - Red Bull Rampage & Women's Freeriding
• 33:53 - The Return of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
• 48:36 - Picks of the Week!

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