The Broadsheet: December 19th

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• Well played. It can be tempting to write off elite sports—both college and professional—as bad for women. After all, just in the past few days, we've seen stories about ten players who've been suspended from the University of Minnesota football team over sexual assault allegations, more than 300 underage gymnasts who say they've been sexually exploited, and emails revealing that members of the men's cross country team at Amherst College called women "meat slabs" among a host of other gross comments.

So it was reassuring to come across a pair of sports stories this weekend that feature female athletes, and showcase not just their sporting prowess, but also their resiliency, drive, and ability to inspire.

The first is a profile UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, who is in the midst of attempting to bounce back from her shocking 2015 loss to Holly Holm by training in a remote cabin—or as Rousey puts it, "doing the chick version of growing a beard and living in a cave." This story takes us inside her training camp, chronicling what she is doing, both mentally and physically, to recapture her purpose and whip herself back into fighting shape.

In the second, we meet Fordham women's basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley, who pushes her players to load up on classes—even those that might interfere with workouts—so that they can graduate in three years and use their final year to start working towards a master's. This year she has three seniors who are doing just that. Says Hannah Missry, one of those players: "Without Coach, I don’t think any of this could have happened.”

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• The audacity of no hope. In a teaser clip from Oprah Winfrey's forthcoming interview with Michelle Obama, the First Lady says that many Americans are now feeling a lack of hope. "What else do you have if you don't have hope?" she asked. "What do you give your kids if you can't give them hope?" President-elect Donald Trump rebutted Obama's comments in a speech this weekend, saying, “We have tremendous hope and we have tremendous promise and we have tremendous potential.”

• From kale to KFC. In other First Lady news, this piece speculates about the future of Obama's legacy as an advocate of healthy eating under the Trump administration (the president-elect is an outspoken junk food fan.) Fortune

• In the bag. Fashion label Coach has signed pop star and actress Selena Gomez to be the face of its brand, a major coup for the leather goods company as it tries to attract a younger, hipper clientele. Fortune

• The Kelly style. From the spaghetti-strap dress she wore to cover the Republican National Convention, to her short, sleek hairstyle, Megyn Kelly has redefined our ideas about professional style. Says Kelly of her look: “I do think there is a new archetype for women emerging that rejects the bounds that have been placed on them." New York Times

• Ladies of the law. For the first time ever, women make up a majority of U.S. law students. New York Times

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Grey New York has promoted Debby Reiner to lead the office in the newly created role of CEO.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Proof of concept. Unilever is acquiring Living Proof, a beauty products company co-owned by Jennifer Aniston. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  BizJournals

• More about the damn emails. According to court filings, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin says that that neither she nor Anthony Weiner ever received FBI search warrants for emails found on her estranged husband’s computer, raising questions about whether the warrants were ever issued, and if so, to whom. New York Post

• From the outside in. In this Recode podcast, former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan talks about why she decided to leave the post. "You need to be an outsider," says Sullivan. Recode

• Oprah gets cooking. Oprah Winfrey's new publishing imprint will launch in January, starting with her very own cookbook, Food, Health and Happiness.  New York Magazine

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ON MY RADAR

Hillary Clinton goes all Love Actually to sway the Electoral College on SNL  Fortune

Women are making opera. And it's not easy.  New York Times

It's 2016, so why is Super Mario still rescuing a cake-baking princess?  Recode

Shonda Rhimes is teaching a TV writing workshop  New York Magazine

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