Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excer. I'm Taylor Wilson. Today is Sunday, July 13, 2025.

Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon who has changed women's basketball, women's sports, and sports

period.

But what makes her tick?

How did a kid from Iowa become one of the most recognizable athletes in the world?

And what does her presence mean for the future of the WNBA and how we talk about it?

USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan has covered the beginning of Clark's career

and recently

took a step back to write about this superstar on her game, Caitlin Clark and the Revolution

in Women's Sports. Christine joins me now to discuss. Thanks for wrapping on, Christine.

Oh, Taylor, my pleasure. Thank you. So just starting here, I mean, what inspired you to step

back and write this book in this

moment?

I'd written a few columns on Caitlin Clark.

I had not met her.

The fascination with her, the crowds, the capacity crowds, of course, the big news, Taylor,

was the women's and the men's final game, the NCAA final in 2024, where there were

four million more viewers for the women

than the men. Even now, I cannot believe I said that sentence. This is NCAA men's and

women's basketball. Four million more people watched the women than the men because of Caitlin

Clark. So this fascination was crystal clear why. I've covered women's sports and men's sports for more than four decades,

hard to believe. And, you know, while I was covering the NFL and Super Bowls and Wimbledons and

...