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It's the Brian Larrow Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we continue our WNYC

Centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things. You know, we're using the station's 100th anniversary

to explore the century-long arc of history for 100 different things for people that matter to our

lives today. We're

up to thing number 76. It's 100 years of organized women's sports. Think what you will about

the recent political slogan, save women's sports. Many people with that slogan on their lips

may never have cared about women's sports before, right? It's been hard enough to launch women's sports, which for many have become a cause

only because trans people are seen as a blight.

But there's a century and more of history that has gradually built something

that people can even debate how to save through college athletics that began in the

19th century, through Title IX

in the 1970s, through the popularity of individual stars like Serena Williams, Megan Rapino,

Caitlin Clark. Let's talk about it. With us for this is Jane McManus, sports journalist,

an adjunct professor at NYU at the Preston Robert Tish Institute for

Global Sport, and author a brand new book called The Fast Track Inside the Surging Business of Women's

Sports. Jane, always great to have you. And now in our 100 Years of 100 Think series, welcome back to

WNYC. Thanks. I'm so happy to be here and talk

about this. And your book is mostly about the last 50 years, beginning with Billy Jean King and

some of her peers, but I know you can take us back further. The website of the National Women's

History Museum says 19th century America idealized white women's modesty frowning on sports as a threat

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