The Work Diary of ESPN’s Mina Kimes (and Her Dog, Lenny)

Monday

10 a.m. I’m still in Miami, so I’m going to appear on one of our afternoon shows, “Highly Questionable.” After reading all morning, I jump on a phone call with our producers to bounce my takes off them.

11:30 a.m. I swing by the set of “The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz,” which is a televised radio show, to do a few segments. I joined ESPN as a writer; I’ve only been doing commentary for about three years, and Dan (along with Stu) has played a big role in influencing not only how I talk about sports, but what I believe sports commentary can and should be. It’s the morning after a massive weekend in football, so naturally we do an extended riff where we all play different roles in a fictional medieval court. That’s not a joke. That’s a thing that happened. My character is a witch.

1:15 p.m. Dan and I sit for a taping in the “Highly Questionable” studio, which is inside the Clevelander South Beach hotel. One of my frequent collaborators and close friends, Domonique Foxworth, joins us from D.C.

8 p.m. After cobbling together a sad little dinner in the Delta lounge, I board a plane back to Los Angeles. While keeping an eye on the Monday night game (it’s always a pleasant surprise when satellite TV works), I prepare for my football podcast, which I’ll record tomorrow, by gathering statistics and watching tape from some of the games I missed on Sunday. The Chargers are playing, so I make sure to shut down my laptop when it’s the end of the fourth quarter, knowing that Philip Rivers will inevitably try to mount a frantic comeback.

Tuesday

7:30 a.m. While walking my dog, Lenny, I join a production call for today’s podcast. We usually plan stories a few days in advance, but frequently scrap them in response to the sports news. I like taking calls while I’m walking Lenny, but it’s always awkward, trying to juggle a phone while picking up after your dog.

10 a.m. I write and record the final block of our show, which is a monologue. Today’s segment is a brief meditation on the Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

1 p.m. After lunch, I tape an interview with one of our top M.L.B. writers, Jeff Passan, who is in Arlington, Texas, covering the owners’ meetings and the ongoing sign-stealing scandal.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/business/mina-kimes-espn-work-diary.html?emc=rss&partner=rss