RECESS: Ted Lasso, Women's Sports, Private Equity in Youth Sports & Aesthetic Wellness

View This Week's Show Notes

Juliet and I have been saying yes to everything this fall. We're calling it the Fall Travel Junket, and it's stacked with events from Phoenix to Vail to Antarctica. Follow our Instagram or subscribe to The Ambush for details. And spoiler: you can join us in ANTARCTICA! For real!

We've been watching the new season of Ted Lasso, which is putting women's sports on mainstream television in a way that's hard to ignore. We get into what that means culturally, including who we'd want to see make a cameo.

Private equity is moving into youth sports with the "stay-to-play" model and it's terrible for players and parents. We dig into that, the "pay-to-play" model, what's happening at the policy level, and what parents can actually do.

We close with two Instagram trends that gave us pause: men in the longevity space calling facelifts "aesthetic wellness," and a dating site for people who didn't get the COVID vaccine.

New episodes of The Ready State Podcast drop every Thursday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss a thing!

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why Ted Lasso's new season is putting women's sports inequities on mainstream display
• What the WNBA surge and Copa 71 reveal about the growing appetite for women's sports
• How private equity operates in youth sports through the stay-to-play model
• What New York Magazine and the Denver Post found when they investigated the pay-to-play childhood
• What parents can actually do right now, from supporting Senator Murphy's bill to keeping rec leagues alive
• Why calling facelifts "aesthetic wellness" is a branding problem worth naming
• What "Unjected" is, and what it says about the stranger corners of wellness culture

Key Highlights:

(0:00) Welcome back + Goings on in Starrett Land: our empty nest and the Fall Travel Junket

(02:10) PT Biz Mastermind and Brett Bartholomew's Non-Superficial Conference

(02:46) The Assembly in Vail, Eudaimonia, and the Antarctica expedition

(04:46) Ted Lasso's new season and the women's sports moment

(06:15) WNBA, Copa 71, and cultural momentum toward the 2027 Women's World Cup

(09:54) Ted Lasso cameo wishlist: Emma Hayes and Megan Rapinoe

(12:45) Private equity in youth sports: NYMag and Denver Post investigations

(13:56) The stay-to-play model and Senator Murphy's bill

(17:24) Free play, skate culture, and why it matters

(20:15) What parents can do: rec leagues, Positive Coaching Alliance, taking action

(22:30) "Aesthetic wellness": men calling cosmetic procedures a health practice

(27:48) Unjected: the dating site for the unvaccinated

(29:52) Outro