🏆 A 2x World Cup champ just changed the podcast playbook

Presented by Cozy Critters

🧭 The Scale of Ambition

There’s ambition that wants to go viral. And then there’s ambition that wants to matter. One chases reach, the other chases resonance. Both are valid, but only one will still feel worth it a year from now.

Podcasting exposes this difference fast.

If your show is built for something sharper, something that leaves a mark, then scale isn’t about size. It’s about depth, about knowing the change you’re trying to make and measuring your success against that, not the algorithm.

By all means, dream big. Just make sure your ambition scales in meaning, not just in metrics.

🎙️ Signal Flow: Tobin Heath

Industry game changers and valiant minds share their wisdom, adversities, and paths to innovation.

Tobin Heath is a 2x World Cup Champion for the U.S. Women's National Soccer team, an equal pay pioneer, and the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of RE. She is a 4x Olympian, with two gold medals and a bronze medal. She is known as one of the most skillful and entertaining players in the game. Throughout her club career, Heath has played for PSG, the Portland Thorns, Manchester United, and Arsenal. Tobin brings her vision, leadership, and creativity as a Co-CEO of RE, a values-led sports media brand that betters the world through the unifying power of sport.

In a world so driven by ego, sports still give us something to believe in that’s bigger than ourselves.

I never thought I’d be doing anything in or around sports media. I used to be the last person who’d agree to an interview, let alone host a show.

I realized the reason I avoided it is because I thought sports media was a joke, especially when it came to women’s sports. There was such a disconnect between how we lived it and how it was portrayed.

Eventually, I stopped being frustrated and started building something better. That’s what RE is. That’s what The RE-CAP Show is. We’re not just making a podcast, we’re trying to define women’s sports culture. And not just the competition, but the emotion, the humor, the humanity. The whole thing.

Creatively, I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want the show to sound like everything else out there, I wanted it to be unfiltered and unapologetic. That was the biggest thing missing in women’s sports: people speaking with nuance, with real experience, and without watering things down. That’s the culture we’re building. I call it “gal culture.” It’s the feeling of being in the locker room with the U.S. Women’s National Team. Confident, bold, honest, fun. That’s what we’re trying to bring to the world.

We didn’t start this thinking, “Let’s make a podcast.” We started thinking, “Let’s lead the narrative of women’s football.” And somehow, that led us here.

At the 2023 World Cup, my teammates were thanking me for starting this. That meant everything. It wasn’t about numbers, it was about impact. If your own peers tell you that something you created helped them feel seen and heard, that’s success.

Most of the time, the episodes are just extensions of the conversations Kristen and I are already having at home. We don’t avoid complexity—we go straight into it.

Because it’s our company, our platform, we can go as deep as we want and then decide, “Is this how we want to say it?” That freedom is powerful.

When people talk about the show, I hope they say it made them braver. I hope it gave them permission to be their full selves. I hope it made them feel seen, included, and understood. That’s the kind of space we want to create. Liberating. Provoking. Honest.

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Need a little peace and quiet this summer?

Cozy Critters is the award-winning bedtime podcast that helps kids wind down while learning about animals around the world. With gentle stories, calming sounds, and just the right dose of curiosity, it’s the nighttime routine your whole family will love.

😻 Mom’s Choice Award winner

😻 Featured by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

😻 Top 5 podcast worldwide on Yoto

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Podcasting is a disruptive space. It lets us cut out the gatekeepers and go straight to our community.

Community isn’t something we curate, it’s something we show up for. We don’t pretend to have it all figured out. We evolve with our audience. We let ourselves be vulnerable. And because of that, people feel like they’re on this ride with us.

Our partnership with Audacy was a big moment. They understood the vision from the beginning. It wasn’t just a good business deal, it felt like true gal culture.

That’s what changed everything for women’s sports: social media, digital storytelling, direct connection. That’s why we’re a digitally native media company. You have to meet the next generation where they are, and that means building many doors into the RE universe.

Sometimes that’s clips. Sometimes that’s long-form. Either way, you’ve got to earn their attention and keep it.

I’ve always been led by gut feelings. I never overthink it. That’s how I ended up here. Not because I planned it, but because it felt right.

🎧 Podcast of the Week: The Midnight Miracle

Hosted by Dave Chappelle, Yasiin Bey, and Talib Kweli, The Midnight Miracle isn’t just a podcast, it’s an experience. Part conversation, part mixtape, part mind-bender, it blends music, philosophy, storytelling, and humor in a way that defies format.

🥾 Further Exploration: How Podcast Storytelling is Evolving

Here’s a deep dive from Nieman Storyboard exploring how producers are experimenting with narrative structures, from cliffhangers to standalone vignettes, highlighted by insights from the “Snitch City” team. A practical, craft-focused look at storytelling’s cutting edge.

ICYMI:

🧙‍♀️ A Wicked voice with a wildly good podcast

🙋‍♀️ This podcast won’t give you answers, just better questions

🎉 A family, a microphone, and a podcast that stuck

💡 The Quiet Spark

A weekly question to ignite fresh thinking, stir self-reflection, and fuel your creative process behind the mic.

What are you presuming to be true?