How Serena Transcended Tennis
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and over $100 million in prize money, this month Serena Williams announced the end of her professional tennis career. While her on-court accomplishments and longevity put her in the sporting pantheon, her cultural impact is just as remarkable.
Guest: Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of Black studies at the University of Texas Austin and co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn It All Down.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I think that the holidays feel like frozen noses. I love walking with the dog for long periods of time. |
| 0:10.0 | Hopefully it's snowing and you've got to wrap up warm. So I think a frozen nose is a sweaty armpit |
| 0:15.0 | because your wrapped up so warm but then you're climbing hamps and heath and you get to the top |
| 0:20.0 | and you're like, and then you can see the breath but then your nose is still freezing to touch. |
| 0:25.0 | Join in every sip with red cups now back at Starbucks. |
| 0:36.0 | So Amira Rose, do you remember the first time you watch Serena Williams play tennis? |
| 0:44.0 | That's a great question. I don't know if I remember the first match but I remember the moment |
| 0:50.0 | in which I knew that Serena and Venus were in existence in my world. |
| 1:02.0 | All of a sudden we had the US open on or the Australian open on and it became this event |
| 1:11.0 | to make sure we were there and witnessing and supporting and cheering on these black girls in the Lily White sport. |
| 1:19.0 | Amira Rose Davis is an assistant professor of black studies at the University of Texas Austin |
| 1:26.0 | and co-host of the Feminist Sports Podcast, Burn It All Down. |
| 1:31.0 | I know for me one of the things I really latched on to was the beads in their hair. |
| 1:36.0 | I rocked beads all through my childhood and it was just like, oh, that's what representation looks like. |
| 1:46.0 | I have beads in a space where there was none and still have the confidence and the audacity |
| 1:54.0 | and the swagger to just rock your hair in the way you want to and not to kind of conform yourself to this space. |
| 2:03.0 | Amira Rose followed Serena Williams as she won 23 grand slam titles and four Olympic gold medals. |
| 2:10.0 | She watched Williams endure attacks based on her race and femininity and she also saw her survive a difficult pregnancy that threatened to derail her career. |
| 2:21.0 | And it wasn't until high school college where I started really watching their matches and understanding playing style and all of that |
| 2:31.0 | but what preceded all of that was just their kind of cultural impact on me and my family and the community. |
| 2:39.0 | This month in an essay in Vogue magazine, Williams announced her retirement from professional tennis. |
| 2:46.0 | She wrote that she wants to focus on her daughter Olympia and possibly have more children. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.