Minnesota-made sports podcast shines the spotlight on women in sports

CATHY WURZER: A new podcast is peeling back the curtain of Minnesota sports with an emphasis on empowering women. Dawn of Sports is hosted by FOX 9 sports anchor and reporter Dawn Mitchell and co-hosted by the Star Tribune's Jim Souhan.

The recent buzz with Caitlin Clark, the Big 10 women's basketball tournament in town, and the new professional women's Hockey League has created more opportunities for Minnesotans to support women athletes, so we thought it was a perfect time to talk to Dawn Mitchell, and she's on the line. Hey, welcome. How are you?

DAWN MITCHELL: How are you doing?

CATHY WURZER: I'm doing really great, Dawn. Thanks for taking the time. I know you're busy. Say, I have to ask you before we dive into the podcast. What did you think of the Kirk Cousins story? I mean, was it a foregone conclusion that he was going to leave the Vikes?

DAWN MITCHELL: It was not a foregone conclusion. However, you could tell kind of the tenor of the conversations and the words coming out of the combine in Indianapolis when Kevin O'Connell was talking. He had mentioned, you know, I know a lot of other teams are vying for Kirk.

So just the tone of how he said that, many of us that have been covering the team for years went, huh. I don't know if that's going to happen that he's going to stay. So that's where my head kind of tilted and figured, oh, OK. Pretty much, Kirk Cousins is not going to be here. And this is going to be their plan going forward.

They're going to get someone else to come in short term and then draft a quarterback. So I wasn't surprised like many people thought because I was thinking it could go one way or the other, and so here we are. We know what the plan is now. We just have to see who they draft.

CATHY WURZER: All right. And I'm sure you're going to be following that obviously because that's one of the big stories in your beat.

DAWN MITCHELL: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: Let us talk about your podcast, my friend, Dawn of Sports. You're so busy. For goodness sakes, Dawn. What the heck? Why do you want to start a podcast?

DAWN MITCHELL: Why I wanted to start it is I think in the world of TV sports, we have, especially in the news side, two minutes to feature someone. Or I am lucky enough, on the weekends, Friday night and Saturday night, I have 15 minutes. But still, that's broken up with commercials, as you know. So right when you're getting to the heart of maybe talking to an athlete or letting them tell their story, you have to wrap them.

And yes, we can put the rest on the web, which has been beautiful. We have FOX Local now, so we can put the rest of the story-- you all remember that on radio. Here's Paul Harvey the rest of the story. But for me to have a podcast where I don't have to talk to just an athlete-- I can talk to a writer. I can talk to a woman who has been through it.

And the point of my podcast was also to not exclude men. Many women want to be like, it's women only, women power, and men are this and that. I was raised with four brothers. I have no sisters-- a very strong dad who supported me in anything I wanted to do and a strong mom.

So when Jim Souhan said, I would love that. I said, I don't want to eliminate men. I want to bring men into the conversation, too, because there's so many men, especially here in Minnesota, that support and uplift strong women, and I wanted to give that a voice.

CATHY WURZER: I hear you've talked to Twins legend Jim Kaat, Chad Greenway who was with the Vikes. So what did you learn from them in your conversations?

DAWN MITCHELL: The wonderful thing about Jim Kaat is I met him when I was in college back at Boston College in Massachusetts. And talk about a man who uplifts women and helps strong women. He helped me actually get my first job at CBS network. I was behind the scenes. I was a stage manager. I wasn't even on air yet. I was not even out of college, and I just worked behind the scenes at CBS.

Jim and Dick Stockton and all these people were like, wow. You know your sports. You're educated. You're this and that. Hey, would you like to help us set up an interview on the field? Would you like to do this? And then when Jim was brought on to CBS Sports to do baseball, they said, do you have a stage manager in mind? He said, call Dawn Mitchell in Boston.

So that was behind the scenes, and then I eventually got myself in front of the camera as well, and it all came full circle when I came to Minnesota. And I said, Jim, you're in for Twins Fest. Can I interview you on air? So my life has taken a full circle. But I also wanted to have him on to also thank him for helping a young college woman that had her sight on a dream, and he empowered me.

Just many people like that. Chad Greenway has his daughters, and he's about empowering women as well through his foundation Lead the Way. I just want to shine a light on some of these men that are upholding that and helping women lead their own lives.

CATHY WURZER: So good for you for taking this podcast, you and Jim, and kind of, in a sense, taking sports figures and peeling the onion with them, in a way. You know what I'm saying? Taking them down in different layers so we can all learn a little bit more about them, what makes them tick, and that kind of thing. Good for you.

DAWN MITCHELL: That's exactly-- what makes them tick. You're exactly right.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, that's really interesting. Let me ask you this about sports in Minnesota. Gosh, who was I talking to just last week? The person who's the director of the Tucker Center for Women in Sports at the U of M. We were talking about Minnesota being at the forefront of supporting women in sports. Why do you think that is? Why are we so good at that?

DAWN MITCHELL: Well, I think, first of all, there are a lot of strong smart women here in Minnesota, and there are a lot of tremendous athletes. And when you put those two things together, I think it starts to-- cream rises to the top. When you have someone like Wendy Blackshaw who is with Minnesota sports and events that said, this is going to be my goal to be the preeminent place in the country to celebrate women's sports, to get every big event here.

You just mentioned off the top, Caitlin Clark and all the other big 10 basketball women that came in here for the tournament. It wasn't just about Caitlin. It was supporting this whole tournament and getting people in here and seeing that if you see it, you can be it. I just think that's so important to have someone at the top that is celebrating women and doing that.

And with basketball mainly, it starts with, you know, Lindsay Whalen, we've got so many people. Rachel Banham-- you can just go down the line. And then when it comes to women's hockey, now, we have Minnesota Aurora, women's sports. I think there's so much talent here in this state. And now, if you get someone behind you, if you get cameras in front of them, these young girls that are growing up can see that.

One of the coolest things when I was talking with Natalie Darwitz who's the general manager-- we all know she played for the Gophers, USA. Now, she's the general manager of Minnesota's PWHL team. She said that she has two young sons, and it was kind of cool.

She takes them, of course, to the rink and sees all the girls playing and women playing hockey. The first time one of her sons saw a guy playing hockey, he goes, Mom, guys play hockey, too? That is awesome. That's when it comes full circle. It's not exclusion, it's inclusion.

CATHY WURZER: Exactly. I love that. It's also nice to see the sports media in town supporting women's sports. That was not the case back in the day when I first started in media. That certainly was not true at all, and that's been a huge change, and also social media, so women athletes get to tell their own story as well. Would you agree?

DAWN MITCHELL: Absolutely. And what I love about this going hand in hand is the male athletes that are uplifting the women. Especially on social media, you'll see that, the NBA player supporting the WNBA players, the men hockey players supporting the women hockey players. But I absolutely agree with you.

When I was growing up, if it wasn't someone that was like a female figure skater that was at the Olympics-- you had to be the number one of your sport probably in the country to even get any kind of coverage, and now to see everything coming fruition here. At FOX 9 Plus, we carry the Minnesota Aurora games. We go for women's hockey games.

And that just makes me so proud to see. I started here in Minnesota in 2004 and just how far it has come. And that's when Lindsay Whalen was in the final four. When you're thinking way back then how far we've come, it just makes me smile. And even when it comes to media here, when I first got here, there was hardly any other women doing sports media.

FOX Sports North always had women, but in the other four, as they say, the networks-- now, Julia Daniels is here at KARE 11. So when I'm in the locker room and I can look over and see another female along with me doing this job, it just makes me so happy.

CATHY WURZER: Dawn Mitchell, it's really a pleasure talking to you. The podcast is terrific. Best of luck with everything. Really, take care of yourself.

DAWN MITCHELL: Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. I really do.

CATHY WURZER: FOX 9 sports anchor and reporter Dawn Mitchell's been with us. She's the co-host of the Dawn of Sports podcast. You can listen to wherever you get your podcasts.