0:00

QQHT in 2QQHT HD1, New York. Ebro

0:03

in the morning with Laura Stiles and

0:05

Rosenberg. Hot 97. Just

0:08

don't call it a podcast. Ladies

0:13

and gentlemen, it's Ebro Laura and Rosenberg. Give it

0:16

up, Alexis Ohahanian has stepped in the room. Did

0:18

I say the last name right? You nailed it,

0:20

man. All the Armenians listening. Look at that. Shout

0:22

out to the Armenian people, man. Shout out to

0:24

the Armenians. I grew up, I had a great

0:26

Armenian friend growing up. My best friend, we bought

0:28

the Airbnb and RockHim tape together. Shout

0:30

out to Mitch Melekian, wherever you are. By

0:33

the way, my childhood best friend is

0:36

Armenian. Rafi Karamian. You know the last

0:38

name. That's amazing. We're always out there

0:40

with the IAN, YAN, last name. Do

0:42

you play the game? I'm guessing this

0:44

must be a game that Armenians play.

0:46

You can spot the names very easily

0:48

that used to be IAN, and you

0:50

know. And remixed. But I'll tell

0:52

you though, to a tee, I think Armenians, to

0:55

our credit, we rap so proud, so loud,

0:57

and that's awesome. I'm glad you had such

0:59

good experiences. Well, I'm grateful. I think Mitch

1:02

might have put me on, was like, yo,

1:04

we need to go buy this Airbnb and

1:06

RockHim paid in full. And I

1:08

was like, Airbnb and RockHim paid in full. They had

1:10

to hold things out? Wow. See?

1:12

That's an important, that's a very important part. Huge

1:14

culture moment. This makes me so proud.

1:17

Even more proud of Armenian. My friend

1:19

went to Armenian camp. Oh, was

1:21

it camp New York? I don't remember. Camp New Bar? We're from

1:23

Maryland. I don't know if you went. It might have been. All

1:26

I know is a lot of things

1:28

got cracking in Armenian camp. He came back with a

1:30

lot of stories. You went to Armenian camp, didn't you?

1:32

Way less interesting Armenian camp experience. But you went to

1:34

Armenian camp. I did. It was important. And

1:37

also growing up, you're kind of dislocated from the community

1:39

a little bit. At least I was, unless you're in

1:41

LA or a really deep Armenian neighborhood, so they just

1:43

send us all to camp so we can have that

1:45

experience. Try to be better Armenians. Yeah. I

1:48

think it worked out OK. All right. So listen,

1:50

one of my best girlfriends shot a DJ

1:52

lady as she called me. And she was like,

1:54

hey, yo, I'm DJing this really dope ass

1:56

event. Yes. She's like, you guys have to have

1:59

Alexis on. and talk about it.

2:01

She runs New York. Tell us about it. Yes. Oh,

2:03

that makes me so happy. Okay. So, you know, I've

2:05

been a big supporter of women's sports for a minute

2:07

now. And I went from obviously cheering

2:09

on my wife to starting Angel City FC, this

2:12

women's soccer team in LA that I funded about

2:14

four years ago. And I

2:16

just couldn't get over how under invested in these

2:18

sports were, and how everyone pays

2:20

attention every four years, and then they seem

2:22

to disappear. And so imagine, and I thought

2:24

that way about women's soccer, it's gone well.

2:27

And imagine a year ago, I'm looking at the Olympics

2:29

coming up and I'm like, hey, these

2:31

American women are the best in the world. There's

2:33

a generation, there's a legacy of greatness in the

2:35

American women in track. And

2:37

we all pay attention to them every four years

2:39

of the Olympics. And then for some reason they

2:41

disappear. Why is that? And so

2:43

I did what I always do in building

2:46

companies. I just got on the phone and

2:48

called the sort of most important people, the

2:50

most important stakeholders. And those were dozens of

2:52

track runners, including Gabby Thomas, who we ended

2:54

up launching this all with. And

2:57

I said, what would you do to change it?

2:59

And first and foremost, it was create an event

3:01

like Athlo's highest prize in the

3:03

history of the sport. And frankly,

3:05

it wasn't even that hard. It was

3:07

only 30 grand was the top prize

3:10

for winning a championship. And I'm talking

3:12

to these ladies, I'm like, you can't be a professional

3:14

athlete when those are the dollars you're getting for being

3:16

the best. And so we doubled that out the gate.

3:18

That was easy. And then how do

3:20

we create an environment that is one

3:23

of one? That's a cultural moment in the same way that

3:25

going to like F1 might be. And

3:27

it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize

3:29

music and running go really well together. So

3:31

we said, okay, let's bring together the fastest

3:33

women in the world. Let's offer the largest

3:35

prize in the history of the sport. Let's

3:38

bring Meg Thee Stallion to perform. Let's have

3:40

DJ D Nice and all these other amazing

3:42

local DJs come and perform and spin. And

3:44

so our hope is people show up tomorrow,

3:46

five o'clock doors open. They start their weekend

3:48

early, they get a couple drinks, they're vibing

3:50

out to great music. And then all of

3:52

a sudden around 7730, the show

3:55

really starts the lights go out and you

3:57

start getting this intro music as the ladies

3:59

start. walking out and you have six

4:02

amazing races. Tiffany designed

4:04

crowns for the winners and

4:07

and you know this this is that intersection

4:10

of sports greatness and music greatness that I'm

4:12

just so excited to bring to the city

4:14

and show people something that I hope will

4:16

be one of the best sporting

4:19

events in New York has ever been to. I

4:21

know that's a high bar in this in this

4:23

town between US Opens and Knicks playoff matches and

4:25

Liberty matches but I'm excited for it. Where

4:27

is this taking place? ICON so

4:29

Randall's Island. Okay. So ICON a famous

4:32

track, same bolt set records there

4:34

and we're leveling it up

4:36

a bit as well bringing in a bunch of

4:38

installs to create a really dope experience. We'll have

4:40

trackside suites, we'll have some

4:42

great VIP sections, we'll have an entire

4:44

student section with hundreds of local

4:47

New York track runners, high school kids, boys and

4:49

girls, gonna have some of the best seats in

4:51

the house at the finish line. That's awesome. To

4:53

be able to see a future for them in

4:55

professional track that literally has not existed before. No

4:57

it hasn't. Outside the Olympics. I have a 10

5:00

year old track was a she has

5:02

some friends that run and it

5:05

was hard for me to get her to

5:07

like participate because they have some young Brooklyn

5:09

teams that run and and that have ran

5:11

for a long time and and all

5:13

around the city but they don't have tracks like

5:16

there's a lot of place like they have

5:18

to like share space or in the winter

5:20

time there's nowhere to train because there's not

5:22

I don't think there is an indoor facility

5:24

to train where people can actually maybe there's

5:26

some schools I think that have some indoor

5:29

spaces but if you're just like a kid

5:32

where you going so is this something

5:34

that you see this blast for for

5:36

New York City or is this is

5:38

this something you're gonna move around and will it always

5:40

be in New York where's it go? It look at

5:43

a minimum we've said you know this is a commitment

5:45

if this if this works as well as I think

5:47

it will this is something I want to be a

5:49

yearly tradition here in New York and I say this

5:51

as a kid you know made in Fort Greene I

5:54

I really there's no better city

5:56

to be the test ground for this because

5:59

if you can make it here you can make it anywhere, right?

6:01

And if we earn that right because of the success

6:03

of this event, to be able

6:05

to expand it, we certainly will because that'll grow

6:08

the game, that'll grow the sport. But at

6:10

a minimum, this should become a fixture in

6:13

the New York sports and entertainment landscape. And

6:15

I feel blessed because I realized by

6:18

getting into this sport, learning about this

6:20

sport, asking lots of questions of

6:22

these women, you know, this is this should be the

6:24

most accessible sport in the world. Right.

6:26

Everyone can do it. Everyone can do

6:29

it. The the cost of entry

6:31

is is shoes like it's it's

6:33

it is ostensibly so accessible and

6:35

yet it is still prohibitive

6:37

to make a career out of it. And what

6:39

excites me too as an American is, you know,

6:42

again, we have this legacy of greatness. And

6:44

yet we also have such a global sport in track

6:47

where we've got women, you know, some of the fastest

6:49

women in the world are coming from countries all over

6:51

the world and are going to be

6:53

representing and again, such a great city like New York

6:55

to be doing this. We got

6:57

a great video from Marylady, who's from the

6:59

Dominican Republic. And I'm just she's

7:02

a superstar. She's and what's

7:04

so wild is like I'm thinking about this

7:06

as an outsider. So I'm asking these ladies,

7:08

hey, would it be cool if you had

7:10

a walkout song and and like lights and

7:12

pyro and smoke, like a UFC fight. And

7:14

they're like, yeah, that sounds great. Like I

7:16

no one's ever asked me what my walkout

7:18

song should be before. And I'm like, but

7:20

that's that's the energy the sport needs. And

7:22

I was just in Paris at the Olympics

7:24

seeing this at the highest level. And it

7:26

was electric. And I thought, God, like

7:28

people deserve to see this all the

7:30

time, not just every four years. And

7:32

and so I hope this is the start

7:34

of something very big and and we can

7:36

set a bar that we just keep wanting

7:38

to surpass every year. These ones are very

7:40

dope, very dope. So tomorrow, ICON

7:43

Stadium, Randers Island, 5pm. Get there at five.

7:45

Things started seven, but get there early. You

7:47

want to get a couple drinks, start your

7:49

weekend. Definitely the traffic over there. If you're

7:51

watching this, you live in the Tri-State. Definitely

7:54

want to get over there early. I want to

7:56

talk about Reddit and just like platforms and social

7:58

media before. I know we only had you for

8:00

a limited time. I

8:02

read a little of your backstory about like,

8:04

just being into tech and being into things

8:06

just as a teenager, to the point where

8:09

you were like helping nonprofit organizations with their

8:11

website. You did your research, yes. Well, I

8:13

just, because there's a lot of philanthropic stuff

8:15

that you've always kind of been into, right?

8:17

Like that's your thing. But

8:19

then Reddit happens. Can you give us

8:21

that transition, right? Because Reddit is seeing,

8:23

I mean,

8:26

it's like the most, I guess

8:29

in some ways reliable social

8:31

media space. Some people frame it as with

8:34

all the misinformation and algorithmic stuff people get,

8:36

but you don't really hear that negativity

8:38

about Reddit. So I kind of want to

8:40

know how you maintain that. First

8:42

how you started it, and then also how you maintain the

8:44

kind of, you know,

8:46

credibility of it. Right on. Well, I love, okay,

8:48

so this actually, this relates. So I was, you

8:51

know, I was very lucky. My parents got me

8:53

a computer. It was a big, you know, a

8:55

few thousand dollars, a lot of money. They trusted

8:57

me to just use it. And they said, if

8:59

you break it, you're your

9:01

host, like keep mowing some lawns and we'll, good

9:03

luck. A 486SX, 25 megahertz. I

9:08

mean, y'all's, everyone's smartphone is now orders of magnitude

9:10

more powerful than this computer was. Right? But

9:14

this was a formative time. And as soon as I

9:16

got an internet connection, everything changed. Because

9:18

what I found was kids listening won't know

9:20

what a dial-up was. But when I heard

9:22

that sound of the dial-up connecting, that 33,

9:24

six, I got to another world where I

9:26

could self-learn anything I wanted from strangers

9:28

on the internet. I could teach myself, like, hey, I want

9:31

to learn how to code. I want to learn how to

9:33

build websites. That was interesting to me. And so I

9:35

could go on these message boards and people didn't know

9:38

I was a teenager in my parents' house. They just

9:40

knew I was someone who had skills they didn't have

9:43

and were really grateful for them. And it was an easy way

9:45

to just hone my skills and

9:48

build websites for free for these nonprofits.

9:51

And that gave me the confidence to think, well, damn,

9:53

if I'm just some 14 year old sitting here doing

9:55

stuff for adults and they think I've got superpowers, like,

9:57

this is probably something I should keep doing. My

9:59

dad. was a travel agent who had started his

10:01

own little agency and this

10:04

was the time when online travel agencies again

10:06

no one most people listening don't know what

10:09

a travel agent is anymore but online travel

10:11

agencies were starting so they had this thing

10:13

where you actually talk to someone instead of

10:15

expedient yeah it was actually good with all

10:17

the respect to all these shout out pops

10:19

that's right no I mean seriously because

10:22

now you book more reliable you book a trip

10:24

through these websites it's very if you have a

10:26

problem it's really hard to switch anything and it

10:28

was really useful and they probably they do still

10:30

exist they did super useful because you can call

10:32

someone and they can handle things for you for

10:34

sure instead of you having to talk to each

10:36

individual thing but anyways and that and that put

10:38

like that put food on our table and

10:40

you know it made a big deal or it made

10:42

it made a huge impression on my life when dad

10:44

would come home at the dinner table and maybe he

10:47

was pissed because of the online

10:49

travel agencies the airlines cut their fees to

10:51

travel agents to zero and I remember that

10:53

because now that's that's that's how my dad

10:55

made a living that's how he put food

10:57

on the table for us and

11:00

and he was so pissed and I just

11:02

thought wow okay this internet thing that to

11:05

me is like a toy and some superpowers

11:07

is changing the entire

11:09

livelihood of my family in front of my eyes

11:12

and so I need to always be on the

11:14

other side of that disruption because I don't want

11:16

to ever be on that other side and so

11:18

it was very instructive for my mom and my

11:20

dad to his credit you know he started he

11:22

just closed up a small agency one employee out

11:24

in Maryland now and and I

11:26

even started a travel website in between coming back

11:28

to reddit and I will bring this back to

11:30

reddit and it shut down before

11:32

my dad's travel agency did so he got the

11:34

last laugh at the end of the day so

11:37

shout out pops but but in building

11:39

that and having that experience on forums

11:42

when I was graduating from UVA

11:44

I was thinking through okay how

11:46

do we create these spaces where

11:49

people can show up and not try to

11:51

get followers not try to say

11:53

hey follow me and enjoy my content and and

11:55

whatnot but just come on and say hey I'm

11:57

a part of this community Let me share what's

12:00

on my mind. And it's a simple, it's a

12:02

very subtle difference, but when people show up on

12:04

Reddit and they come to the, if

12:06

they're on r slash hip hop or r

12:08

slash New York City or r slash Athlose,

12:11

they're coming on to post and be part of a community.

12:14

Whereas on every other social media platform,

12:16

you come onto that platform, Instagram, pick

12:19

on them, you're saying, hey, come follow my

12:21

stuff. And that very subtle dynamic is why

12:23

you see that difference. And it's

12:25

not to say it's perfect, it's far from it, but

12:28

it creates a different space for people to

12:31

show up and be a more genuine version

12:33

of themselves. Because it's not about

12:35

scoring internet points or getting followers, it's about

12:38

trying to help someone solve a problem with

12:40

their router or give them advice about what

12:42

microphone to buy or what music they should

12:44

listen to. And it's a different energy. That

12:47

is really interesting though. It's wild to see. It is a

12:50

small nuance. And don't get me wrong,

12:52

we all know on Reddit, you could certainly find yourself in a

12:54

hole and find freakazoids as well, getting into all kinds of crazy

12:56

stuff. For sure. There's a

12:58

really interesting difference that you're there for actual

13:00

information. The thing that I find

13:03

most hilarious about your success is that you

13:05

have this incredible history with computers and obviously

13:07

in tech. And yet the thing that

13:09

has made you a very wealthy man is

13:12

kind of the most basic concept. A message

13:14

form. Message form. When you go on Reddit,

13:16

you feel like you were first in an

13:18

AOL message form. I had a

13:21

PHPBB forum in college, which is some open

13:23

source. It's open source forum software. It actually

13:25

still exists to this day. There's probably plenty

13:27

of form still run on it. That was

13:29

my inspiration for Reddit. And you can see

13:31

in the early, if you look in the

13:34

Wayback Machine, the first 10 years of Reddit's

13:36

design look that janky. Actually, I

13:39

came back in 2014 as chairman to help lead

13:41

the turnaround. And that's when we started Modernize. We

13:43

finally built a mobile app. But

13:45

part of Reddit's charm has always

13:47

been, I think, that simplicity. But

13:51

I firmly believe my job now is

13:53

to either build or invest super early

13:55

in the next generation of technology companies.

13:58

And I just, having had that,

14:00

experience. I know so many

14:02

of the best ideas start

14:04

out actually fairly simple. Coinbase,

14:07

I was a seed investor in Coinbase. That was a

14:09

company when, you know, it's just 2012, Bitcoin

14:12

was getting bought on forums, like

14:15

those janky PHPB forums. And

14:17

someone, Brian Armstrong, the CEO said, hey, we

14:20

should make it suck less to buy some

14:22

Bitcoin, like it should feel professional and serious

14:24

and legitimate. And now it's, you know, multi,

14:26

multi billion dollar company. Small,

14:28

small starts. That's that's really all it

14:31

takes. And and it's funny, you

14:33

go back to even the early days

14:35

of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, so many of

14:37

these platforms, the V ones do look

14:40

that janky Reddit was exceptionally janky. I'll

14:42

give you that. But familiar, but

14:44

familiar. It's a remix.

14:46

But it also to that point, you look back at

14:48

the early versions, not only was there a charm to

14:51

witness simplicity, but there were also basic

14:53

qualities now that are missed. And I certainly don't want

14:55

to walk you into some sort of beef

14:58

with a major, you know, tech company.

15:01

But we can all I think say that

15:03

what's going on on Twitter is problematic. This

15:06

is a scary time in terms of the information. I

15:09

am like to me, it's problematic that when I

15:11

go on a place where I'm supposed to be able to

15:13

get information, as you point out, everyone just wants to spread

15:15

information. I am fed

15:17

information by the person who owns this.

15:19

And the thing that he's saying, which

15:21

is kind of mundane, has 40,000 retweets

15:23

and is bigger than

15:26

anything else being said. What do

15:29

we do moving forward to avoid that

15:31

becoming the norm with these platforms? So

15:33

and I think I think

15:35

Elon has volunteered a version of this different folks

15:37

have said versions and I definitely advocate for this.

15:40

I think so we're all being effectively

15:43

controlled by an algorithm. And

15:46

I don't mean that in a sinister way. But

15:48

like every one of the news feeds we look

15:50

at, including Reddit's every one of them is optimized

15:52

for engagement. Right now that that's that

15:55

that's where the word gets interesting

15:57

because engagement for one of these

15:59

platforms. Is really just you know,

16:01

are you coming back? Are you

16:03

checking are you engaged? What

16:06

you're most interested in yes, and that's not

16:08

necessarily What is the

16:10

most true or what is the the the

16:12

most sort of good for society? It's a

16:15

very innocuous, you know or very simple kind

16:17

of idea But I actually think

16:19

the future of it actually gives

16:21

ownership to individuals To

16:23

choose their algorithm in a way to be

16:25

able to say like I actually just want

16:28

to see stuff from the people I know

16:30

in real life or I

16:32

just want to see the stuff over,

16:34

you know around these like what

16:36

fellow You know Nick's

16:38

fans are into and so I think algorithmic

16:40

choice is something that we're gonna see technologically

16:43

It's very doable actually and

16:45

and and I think what we're coming to realize

16:47

which I do think is good Default

16:50

skepticism should be the norm I think every one of

16:52

us I think it is a healthy thing for all

16:54

of us to be looking at what we're seeing Online

16:57

offline constantly with like a raised

16:59

eyebrow being that kind of skeptical

17:03

And being aware that like every one of these screens

17:05

We look at is just designed for one thing and

17:07

that's to keep us coming back and

17:09

and I don't say that Like it this

17:12

is the same advice. I would give my my daughters are

17:14

not on social media because they're not old enough yet but

17:17

it's the same advice I give to my own kids which

17:19

is to go in with a

17:21

default skepticism and to treat these spaces as

17:25

Like a place where you need

17:27

to be questioning just about everything but all

17:29

commerce spaces are designed to keep us coming

17:31

back Yeah, these are I'm

17:33

not saying but it's commerce. It's business

17:35

right Walmart's designed to keep making the

17:37

target This

17:41

one has come back literally hundreds of

17:43

times we have convenience yeah, it's right

17:45

there It's it's right. What would behoove

17:48

the these companies to want

17:50

to have people Get

17:52

their own algorithm and not get it by

17:54

them well They would they would want them

17:56

to do it on their platforms, so they're

17:58

still they're still getting the engagement but they're

18:01

saying listen, like, because here's the, so this

18:03

is short-term versus long-term thinking.

18:05

Short-term thinking, you want engagement at all costs,

18:07

but we are humans after all. And at

18:10

some point you see people doing their social

18:12

detoxes, their burnout. At some point you're like,

18:14

this is enough. I don't need to spend

18:16

as much time there. And from a pure

18:18

business standpoint, what you really want is long-term

18:20

engagement. You want to know that folks are

18:22

spending time on your site, opening it consistently.

18:25

And so they're actually incentivized, even from like

18:27

a business standpoint, to want that long-term engagement

18:29

by giving people choice algorithmically. I think that's

18:31

where it nets out. The other bigger trend

18:34

is the young generation, and

18:36

particularly like college age women

18:40

and teen girls drive all social

18:42

media adoption. Frankly, most culture,

18:44

particularly young women of color, like they're

18:46

creating culture online. They're driving that. They

18:48

have so much weight in the market.

18:51

And if you look at the success of Instagram,

18:53

the success of Snap, the success of TikTok early,

18:55

those are all platforms that were cool because of

18:57

that demo. And what's interesting

18:59

is that the 20-year-olds today do

19:01

seem to be so burnt out

19:03

by that follow-fame type model that

19:06

we're seeing more and more of these social

19:08

networks starting to get traction that are built

19:10

not around that sort of toxic

19:13

spiral, but about literally there's

19:15

one, AirBuds, that is just sharing

19:17

in real time what you're listening

19:19

to on Spotify or Apple

19:22

or wherever you're listening to your music. And all the

19:24

social network is, is this is

19:26

the stuff that's coming on my playlist right now. And

19:28

you can interact and engage with it. And

19:30

it's a way for people to bond

19:33

in a much less potentially toxic way.

19:35

Because again, it's not about cloud chasing.

19:37

It's not about getting virality. It's just

19:39

about here, here's the stuff I'm listening

19:41

to. And I think that's where the

19:43

hope is, is that next generation,

19:45

not to put it all on them

19:48

because we're already asking a lot of them with things like

19:50

climate and everything else. But I think they're the ones that

19:52

are gonna break the cycle around social. And

19:54

if they put enough time and attention

19:56

onto these platforms, that's what's gonna win.

20:00

important thing is have you

20:02

ever just playing around beats

20:04

arena in tennis just

20:07

play around just joking like just joking. I've never

20:09

picked up a racket. I've never picked

20:13

up a racket. I never played tennis tennis according

20:15

to my father sorry dad was a bullshit country

20:17

club sport when I was growing up we were

20:19

in a football household NFL was the only sport

20:22

that matters what I played it was what I

20:24

did football was it and so

20:26

he changed the channel on ESPN when there

20:28

was tennis highlights and that's not to say

20:30

obviously tremendous respect for Serena Vida's we weren't

20:32

like you know hermits we

20:34

knew but tennis was not a real sport

20:37

I never played it and I've never picked

20:39

up a racket against her nor will I

20:41

ever because there's no way there's no upside

20:43

for race I don't want to

20:45

see him do that either I mean if it's

20:47

a sprint now no chance no no I don't

20:50

think so big fellas not a

20:52

spreader no she's actually really

20:54

good you know but we've played we've

20:56

she is a terrible jumper terrible

20:58

at basketball so I

21:01

can win at a game for sure yeah for sure so you

21:03

have a jump shot and you'll get a rebound I got the

21:05

height I get the rebounds that one that one's for sure and

21:07

actually her defense I can imagine is pretty good like her size

21:09

to size look I look

21:11

she's obviously one of the

21:13

greatest athletes of all time like I I know professional

21:16

sports was not in my future so I chose

21:18

wisely to stay behind a keyboard but

21:21

her jumper is is terrible yeah I can't even picture

21:23

her shooting a pass that's it's not no no it's

21:26

it's how do you I gotta ask you one of

21:28

that I gotta ask you one thing about rooting for

21:30

your wife please as someone who watched her entire career

21:32

and and I went to

21:34

her last match at the US Open I went

21:37

to early match the first the US Open and

21:39

as the years go on with players you love

21:41

I went through the same thing with Agassiz when

21:44

you have these players we feel connected to Americans

21:46

and fellow Armenian shallow I mean so when as

21:48

time goes

21:53

on it gets harder and these matches get more

21:55

and more challenging as age creeps up how

21:58

did you survive Like the

22:01

mental pain of watching just

22:03

someone you're rooting for struggle

22:05

in tennis is awful. As

22:07

a partner, that must

22:09

have just been incredibly grueling in those

22:11

last few that were getting tough. Dude,

22:14

the crazy thing, you know,

22:17

I, let's see, we started talking in 15. And

22:20

so it was amazing. Obviously she broke Steffi's record

22:22

pregnant with Olympia. And I always tell Olympia, like,

22:24

you already won a grand slam. She

22:27

was in her belly for that, right? No one's ever gonna

22:29

top that. And so I saw

22:31

these amazing, amazing moments of just otherworldly

22:34

excellence. And then I

22:36

think I came

22:39

into this as a football fan.

22:41

I was shushed more than

22:44

a few times by grandmother, by Orsine,

22:46

for talking when I shouldn't talk during a

22:49

tennis match. So just being at a tennis

22:51

match where you're not allowed to yell whenever

22:53

you want to yell was hard. Because

22:56

I mean, I am a very

22:59

vocal, expressive fan. And

23:01

now all of a sudden I'm in an environment where I'm cheering for

23:03

a woman I love and

23:05

in a place where I can't even do what I want

23:07

to properly do all the time because of etiquette, which, okay,

23:09

I get. I had to learn that. But

23:12

it was, for me,

23:14

so eye-opening. What solo athletes

23:17

do, and you see

23:19

this as spectators,

23:21

and I can say now having seen

23:23

it up close and personal, solo athletes have

23:26

to have a mental toughness that

23:28

is next level. And

23:30

I think the

23:32

amount of respect and esteem that you

23:34

have as a fan of Serena's, through

23:36

Andre and their two, it actually

23:39

should be even 10X that. Because

23:41

you see how hard it is

23:44

to get up, to

23:46

get back to work, and

23:48

to deal with all of this tremendous pressure

23:50

when you're out there purely by yourself. And

23:53

she still found a way to keep showing up,

23:55

keep showing up as a mother. She's an amazing

23:57

mother, show up as an amazing wife. And

24:00

then just dust it off and get back to it. And

24:02

I'll say, I mean, I definitely got

24:04

into it with a few people at some of

24:06

these matches over the years,

24:08

because I'd still hear things, right,

24:10

that really riled me up. And

24:14

what was so heartening though- Like they were angry at

24:16

her for not performing well enough? No, no, they were

24:18

cheering against her. Outwardly

24:20

rooting against her. And- Commonest. I-

24:23

That's what- Dude, that's what- I mean, what was-

24:25

It happened a few times at the Open. Now,

24:28

again, overwhelmingly much love from the Open. But every

24:30

now and then it still even happened at the

24:32

Open. And I'd be like, dude, like, are you

24:34

an American? And to see, even

24:36

in this day and age, the folks

24:38

who still, because you are great,

24:41

who still want to find reasons, and maybe some

24:43

others, I don't want to speculate, but reasons to

24:45

want to see you fail, it just,

24:48

I don't know, it

24:50

galvanized some part of me, because part of the reason

24:52

you talked about the philanthropic stuff that I've always kind

24:54

of been into and wanted to build, there

24:57

is some part of me that has

24:59

always wanted to see, I,

25:01

maybe I guess every human wants this, but

25:04

on some level, I am so much

25:06

more captivated by the underdog story. I'm so

25:08

much more captivated by the story

25:10

of someone who triumphs in the face of

25:12

all the bullshit than the one

25:15

who has it easy. That's part of your DNA

25:17

as an Armenian American. That's also a part of

25:19

that story, right? That's built in. They tabbed my

25:21

great aunt Vera, pulled me aside on my five,

25:24

my birthday's April 24th, by the way. That's

25:27

the anniversary Armenian genocide. She pulled me aside on

25:29

my fifth or sixth birthday, and

25:31

aunt Vera, I love her, God bless her, and

25:34

she said, look, let me tell you this, let me

25:36

tell you in detail the story of your family and

25:38

how we ended up here, and the responsibility you have

25:40

to make the most out of this life, because a

25:42

lot of people sacrificed and dealt

25:45

with unspeakable things, and they

25:47

endured, and they triumphed, and you need to do great

25:49

things, and then happy

25:51

birthday. So imagine,

25:53

little six-year-old Alexis in Brooklyn hearing this

25:55

from aunt Vera, but it

25:58

grounded me in a really... impactful way that

26:01

I'm probably still carrying some elements of that

26:03

trauma, but it was so formative

26:05

for me. And

26:07

so now you're married to a black woman

26:09

who does get racial vitriol and negativity and

26:11

that's in your house and you're seeing her

26:13

walk in the house from a tough day

26:16

and people saying wild shit. And

26:18

the story starts on public tennis courts

26:20

in Compton. This is an underdog story.

26:23

It's the privilege that I have

26:26

of being able to see it

26:28

and experience her excellence. It's

26:30

not lost on me. And even in conversations, and

26:33

it's been great too between Richard and Orsene,

26:35

getting to know them, getting to see their

26:37

relationship with Olympia. Adira is still a year,

26:39

so she's not doing too much right now.

26:41

She's running around the house, but she's not

26:43

talking yet. But

26:46

to see the way that you can see those

26:48

conversations and those stories get shared and you know,

26:50

Olivia is already very proud of her mom, but

26:52

as she gets older and older, she's going to

26:54

learn more and more layers to that story and

26:56

that pride. And

26:59

I don't know, I feel like this is

27:02

the ultimate expression of why we love

27:05

sport. It is the closest thing

27:07

we have to a level playing field. It's the

27:09

closest thing we have to meritocracy. Now it's not

27:12

perfect because we know, run the tape. If you

27:14

look, I got mad at this like

27:16

10 years later because I wasn't paying attention to tennis at

27:18

the time. But there was that infamous

27:20

US Open match where Serena was getting all

27:22

these calls against her and it was before

27:24

Hawkeye. And the line judges were

27:26

just literally calling balls in that should have been out and out

27:29

that should have been in. And

27:31

I'm watching this getting outraged years later and I'm like,

27:33

what the fuck? Like this sport should

27:35

be, oh sorry, FFC. It's

27:37

okay, you're good. Yeah, it's fine. It's

27:39

fine. It's fine. We're good, it

27:42

happened already. The crazy thing is, like this sport of

27:44

tennis and the reason I've come to love it is

27:46

actually one of the purest sports. As long as you're

27:48

calling it honestly, the ball is in or out. I

27:50

love football but I can't even explain to my six

27:52

year old what a catch is anymore because it depends

27:54

on which elbow and the timing of the control. This

27:57

is pure. And there's no flopping. And

28:00

to see the

28:02

BS that she went through, that was

28:05

just objectively wrong, and

28:07

yet still overcoming it time and time and time

28:09

again. And so part of the reason

28:11

I think I've spent so much time now investing in and

28:13

around sports, and a lot with

28:15

women's sports in particular, is

28:18

because if you are objectively

28:20

great here, this is one place where

28:22

people can be mad about it, but

28:25

you're gonna keep winning, and you're gonna stay

28:27

winning, and you can actually have such a

28:29

tremendous impact on this world. And

28:31

I invested

28:33

in Tiger's team golf league TGL, and I own the

28:35

first franchise there in LA. Tiger's Story is another one

28:37

where I just, I get to sit with this guy

28:39

now, and every time I get a little bit of

28:41

time with him, I leave

28:44

so fired up. Because again, you enter

28:46

these rooms and these spaces where people are sometimes

28:48

literally telling you, no, you can't go in the

28:50

clubhouse. And his response is just,

28:52

okay, well, tell me where the T's are and

28:54

what the club record is, because

28:56

I'm gonna beat it. You don't

28:58

wanna let me in the clubhouse, that's fine, I don't need to go in there. And

29:01

then I look at a sport like track and field,

29:04

which is a sport predominantly conquered

29:06

and won by women of

29:09

color. And from a ton of countries

29:11

that are, there's a ton of very

29:13

wealthy countries doing it, but a ton of not. And

29:16

you start asking questions like, well, okay, if

29:18

this is such a popular sport during the

29:20

Olympics, every four years, why isn't this a

29:22

bigger sport the rest of the time? And

29:25

why haven't we invested in places where

29:27

greatness is happening? And when it's this

29:30

accessible, I mean, forever

29:32

I always used to just think, well, soccer is

29:34

the most accessible sport. It is incredibly accessible, but

29:37

track, you don't even need the ball. And

29:39

so if we can do something with Athlos here

29:42

in New York, we're building something that I hope

29:44

can be multi-layered. It's not just one marquee event

29:46

in New York. It's something that

29:48

works down multiple layers and starts to build

29:50

a pathway for excellence in this sport, not

29:53

just here in the US, but also globally.

29:55

Because again, you have stories of these women

29:57

who are gonna be racing tomorrow. They

30:00

didn't, you know, when they were young girls deciding

30:02

to play the sport, Serena and Venus to their

30:04

credit had Richard Norsin who said, okay, these girls

30:06

can get paid in this sport and that's why

30:08

this sport is going to be for them. But

30:11

the young girls you're going to see, or the

30:13

women you're seeing playing tomorrow, racing tomorrow, when they were

30:16

young girls, none of them thought track was going to

30:18

make them rich and famous. There was no chance in

30:20

hell that was going to do. Maybe I'm going to

30:22

college. Right? That was it. That

30:25

was going to be a pathway to there, which was awesome and noble and

30:27

great, but it was, they weren't doing it for the check. They weren't doing

30:29

it for the fame. And what makes

30:31

these women so compelling is their why is they

30:33

just needed to get up in the morning before

30:35

everybody else and do this thing. And

30:38

no disrespect to my buddies in the NBA or

30:40

the NFL, but we know those guys, right? Like

30:43

for the, the nice thing is when they were

30:45

young men, they could see this as a path

30:47

to tremendous fame and tremendous wealth, which is awesome.

30:50

But if we get this right in

30:52

the next 10 years, the young girls who

30:54

are watching this sport today are going to actually

30:57

see a path towards fame and a career. And

31:00

then we will see this, this being this,

31:02

this, this generation of athletes who are opening

31:04

the door now for a real sport to

31:06

emerge. And and I

31:08

feel like the, the, the impact of that is

31:10

going to be massive. It starts

31:12

tomorrow, man. Congrats. icon stadium, everybody.

31:14

Tomorrow, big event, man. Thank you for coming,

31:16

man. You guys give it up. Alexa. So

31:19

many. Thank you. Check

31:21

out our clothes tomorrow. Thank you. Thank

31:24

you. QHT, QHT, HD1, New York. In

31:27

the morning with Laura Stiles and Rosenberg.

31:32

Don't call it a podcast. Ladies

31:42

and gentlemen, is he brought in the morning.

31:44

Laura Stiles and Rosenberg. We got something serious

31:47

and beautiful. It's really bittersweet. What's

31:50

going on that miss hope here

31:52

has put together. It is a

31:54

friend of mine. Her name is miss

31:56

hope daily dairy. I call her miss

31:58

hope. Mr.

32:00

Craig as well. You have

32:02

been instrumental in not only teaching young

32:04

people about music and vocals and performance

32:06

and just doing a lot of great

32:08

work in the community. And now you

32:11

put something together called Hope Over Hate Let

32:14

the Music Mend. It's a free

32:16

event. And this is to commemorate,

32:19

memorialize, and also bring awareness

32:21

to victims of gun violence

32:24

in our communities. Talk

32:26

about this event. So

32:28

we thank you so much, first of all,

32:31

for having us come on. This

32:33

really means the world to us to be

32:35

able to get the word out about this

32:37

concert. It is

32:39

a tribute, as you said,

32:42

to gun violence victims and

32:44

survivors. And it's

32:46

free. It's this Friday coming up from 3

32:48

PM to 5 PM. We're

32:52

doing this in partnership with the

32:55

Brooklyn Borough President's Office and

32:57

the organization Lay the Guns

32:59

Down Now. And

33:01

we're looking forward to people

33:03

coming out and

33:06

coming out with pictures of their loved

33:08

ones that they might have lost to

33:11

gun violence or those that have been

33:13

impacted by gun violence. And it's just

33:15

a way to make sure that we're

33:18

keeping their memories alive.

33:20

We're keeping their voices alive

33:23

as we fight this fight. It's

33:26

really a sad and terrible thing that's

33:29

happening. And we want to make sure

33:31

that we keep them

33:33

alive. The gun issue

33:35

in America, I think,

33:37

is well documented. But

33:41

I can say, as long as

33:43

I can remember, the proliferation

33:46

of guns in our

33:48

communities, especially illegal

33:51

guns, has been

33:53

something that activists, clergy,

33:57

parents, everyone has always been very vocal

33:59

about. and dealing with gun violence, right?

34:02

And this event, while we're

34:04

doing it this year, Night

34:09

of Peace, Peace Rally,

34:11

Stop the Violence movements have

34:13

always been a conversation, right?

34:15

And we know

34:17

that the illegal guns,

34:20

the mischief of young people with their illegal

34:23

guns, and then you have the mental health

34:25

issues, and just kind

34:27

of the mismanagement of

34:29

emotions, and

34:31

the available, I guess the,

34:35

how available guns are, right, in

34:37

our communities. Right, they're too

34:39

easy to get. So I

34:41

wanna shout out the Brooklyn Borough

34:43

President, Antonio Reynoso, lay the guns

34:45

down now, the 67th Precinct Clergy

34:48

Council, also like I said, Mr.

34:50

Craig Derry, the work that

34:52

works, all the families that have

34:54

been affected by gun violence, that's

34:56

pretty much all of us at this point. Even

35:01

when you're talking about school shootings, right?

35:03

Or even our little ones having to

35:05

prepare for mass shootings at schools, right?

35:07

Like this isn't just, you know,

35:10

in our neighborhoods, this is all

35:12

people dealing with this now. And

35:15

it's all over the world too at this

35:17

point. Yeah. So in

35:19

this event, is that location

35:22

once again this Friday? Yes,

35:24

it's Friday at the Brooklyn Borough

35:26

Hall, President's back

35:28

steps, it's outside. The

35:31

promenade. Yes,

35:33

in the promenade. So, you

35:36

know, everybody will be able to hear

35:38

and see there's enough room for everyone

35:40

to come out. We're hoping that we're

35:42

going to, in

35:44

addition to paying tribute, that we'll

35:47

usher in some peace, you know?

35:50

That's what we're looking for at

35:52

A Song For Life. We've actually

35:54

asked all of our artists members

35:56

to create songs that are about

35:58

life and for life. uplifting

36:01

life. Will you be singing? Will we

36:03

get to see your hear your amazing

36:05

voice this Friday? No but you know

36:07

what you will get to hear my

36:09

son and daughter will be singing. Oh

36:11

beautiful. Will Mr. Craig be singing this

36:14

Friday? You know what I

36:16

probably won't be able to keep him

36:18

from the stage so yeah. Exactly. But

36:20

whether he's actually singing or not he's

36:22

trained all of these singers. That's right.

36:24

So that's amazing. That's right. He works

36:26

with my daughter as well so we

36:29

appreciate Mr. Craig and everything that he

36:31

does for young people and everything that

36:33

you guys pour into our

36:35

communities and everything you guys pour into young

36:37

people is a blessing and hopefully

36:40

you guys feel the love from all of us

36:43

for all the work that you continue to do. Absolutely.

36:46

Absolutely. So this Friday Brooklyn

36:48

Borough Hall with the Borough

36:50

President along with Mrs. Hope

36:52

here and just our family

36:54

and friends will be there

36:56

three to five at

36:58

the Promenade. Remembering,

37:01

celebrating, finding

37:03

love, finding light in a dark time

37:05

which is always a part of the

37:07

challenge which keeps us all going and

37:10

keeps us all fighting for a better and

37:12

brighter day and Miss Hope we thank you

37:14

for your time. Thank you.

37:16

Thank you so much for having us.

37:18

And you continue to do events for

37:20

young people. I want to say you

37:23

probably do something every quarter right? You

37:25

did something this summer. Yes.

37:27

And for young people and performers right

37:29

and we're doing this here now for

37:32

the community so I'm sure we're gonna

37:34

be. We also did an EP. We

37:36

did an EP. That's right. What's the

37:38

EP called? It's called

37:40

Let Her Rock a Love Letter

37:42

and it's available on all streaming

37:45

platforms and it's all about female

37:47

empowerment. If we don't empower our

37:49

females we cannot have a community

37:53

that is empowered. It starts with the

37:55

women and the families. Absolutely. Well thank

37:57

you for your time today. And

38:00

I'll be talking to you soon. All

38:02

righty, thank you so much. Thank you

38:04

so much. Once again, everybody, this Friday,

38:06

Brooklyn Borough Hall, it's Hope

38:08

Over Hate. Let the music mend, an event

38:11

that honors the victims and

38:14

survivors of gun violence. Once again,

38:16

shouting out to Brooklyn Borough President

38:18

Antonio Reynoso. Lay the guns

38:20

down now. The 67th Precinct

38:23

Clergy Council, Craig Derry, and the

38:25

work that works. All

38:27

the survivors of gun violence, advocates

38:29

for change, and music lovers this

38:31

Friday, September

38:33

27, 3 to 5,

38:35

Brooklyn Borough President's Office outside the promenade.

38:38

QQHT, and QQHT, HD1, New York. Evo

38:41

in the morning with Laura Stiles and

38:43

Rosenberg. Hot 97. Don't

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call it a podcast.