Maria Sharapova launching new podcast to counter sports media’s manosphere

Maria Sharapova is launching a podcast.

The five-time Grand Slam winner and 2020 retiree announced Wednesday that Pretty Tough, a new show focused on female ambition and the pursuit of excellence, debuts April 22 on Vox Media. The first season will include interviews with comedian Chelsea Handler and NFL CFO Christine Dorfler, among others.

 

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According to the Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti, Sharapova shopped the project to multiple potential partners before landing at Vox, ultimately choosing the company because it offered her creative control. Her deal includes a guaranteed minimum and revenue sharing on advertising.

Vox Media spent much of last year shopping its podcast network to potential buyers before informing investors in February that it was no longer available — only for Versant, the newly formed parent of CNBC — to emerge as one of multiple suitors in talks to acquire it just weeks later. The Vox Media Podcast Network produces around 40 shows, including Sue Bird’s A Touch More with Megan Rapinoe and Bird’s Eye View, and Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football.

Sharapova framed Pretty Tough as a deliberate counterweight to what the WSJ called the manosphere — the ecosystem of male-dominated podcasts built around Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and similar voices — that became a genuine political force during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Sports media has its own version of that imbalance. The most prominent daily sports talk shows, the most-downloaded sports podcasts, and the most recognizable voices in the industry skew heavily male, and the women who have broken through have done so largely outside the sports lane.

“There are phenomenal women doing it, but there are certainly not enough of them,” she told the Journal.

Pretty Tough debuts April 22 wherever podcasts are available.