Covering Serena Williams: A conversation with Jon Wertheim and Scott Price

Episode 233 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Jon Wertheim, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a senior correspondent for 60 Minutes and a senior analyst for The Tennis Channel, and Scott Price, who worked for 26 years as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and wrote under the byline S.L. Price. Both Wertheim and Price covered Serena Williams for the duration of her career. In this podcast, Wertheim and Price discuss covering Serena Williams and the first time they interacted with her; Price’s cover story in the Sept. 20, 1999 issue of Sports Illustrated which chronicled Serena winning her first major and becoming the first African-American woman to win a major since Althea Gibson in 1958; the dynamic between Serena and the media who covered her; comparisons with her sister Venus; the subject of race and tennis; the evolution of Serena as a subject; being critical of Serena and what that meant; expectations for this year’s U.S. Open; what Serena might do in the future, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.