Serena Williams shed new gentle Thursday on the forthcoming podcast she’s co-hosting together with her sister Venus, which debuts in August on X.
Talking at Stagwell’s Sport Seaside throughout Cannes Lions, Williams mentioned the private motivations behind the present, which was introduced in June, and previewed the present’s tone and subjects.
“When Venus and I had been enjoying tennis, social media was totally different,” she informed Linda Yaccarino, the chief govt of X, in the course of the panel. “Individuals didn’t get to know us—now we now have the chance to do this.”
She mentioned the present can be extra open and canopy subjects like Black maternal well being, ladies’s sports activities, enterprise, and motherhood.
A longtime investor and founding father of a enterprise agency, Williams mentioned the podcast will highlight feminine entrepreneurs and disruptors in sports activities and tradition.
She cited Jeanie Buss’ $10 billion sale of the Los Angeles Lakers as an ideal instance of an issue that she wish to have explored on the present. She additionally confused that the present would middle its conversations on positivity, partly in response to criticism Williams confronted throughout her profession.
“Once you’re a feminine entrepreneur, you’re employed tougher since you get fewer alternatives and so many no’s,” Williams mentioned. “I really feel like my entire life I’ve been going in opposition to the grain.”
The present will premiere on X earlier than increasing to different audio platforms, and can function interviews with “visionaries, creators, and rulebreakers,” in line with an earlier press launch.
Produced by Serena’s 9 Two Six Productions, the podcast joins a rising slate of unique content material on the platform, together with reveals from Khloé Kardashian and stay WNBA video games.
Notably, the launch marks the second time in latest months {that a} member of Serena’s family has struck a distribution take care of X.
Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, co-produced The Offseason, a docuseries on NWSL gamers, which premiered on X after conventional streamers handed on account of inventive management considerations.
Ohanian declined to share business particulars throughout ADWEEK’s Brandweek occasion in September. He pointed to Yaccarino’s tenure at NBCUniversal, the place she led advert gross sales—together with at marquee franchises just like the Olympics—as a key purpose for the choice.
As a distribution associate, X affords a number of key benefits. It has huge scale, reaching roughly 600 million month-to-month customers, and—not like lots of the subscription-based streaming providers—viewers can entry it free of charge.
Nonetheless, the social community has had missteps on this entrance earlier than. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon sued X in August, arguing that billionaire proprietor Elon Musk refused to pay him after a content material take care of the social media platform fell aside.
And whereas Musk has expressed his aspiration for X to host extra unique video programming, the community has but to supply a signature sequence. The second season of The Offseason is not going to stream solely on X, Ohanian mentioned on the time.
Williams didn’t point out the overlap in the course of the panel. As an alternative, when elaborating on why she selected X because the host platform for the present, she pointed to its worth as a platform for uninhibited expression.
Williams additionally has a considerable following on X, with greater than 10 million followers.
“It’s a spot the place you might be actual and get suggestions in your ideas,” she informed Yaccarino.
