High kicks and higher stake

Cheerleaders are a staple of American culture. Any high school slice-of-life movie will tell you that the girls in the cheer squad are on top of the suburban ruling class. The stakes, glamour, fame, and scandal get even higher when you go pro. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are world-class performers who have solidified themselves as the pinnacle of cheer excellence. Their iconic uniform is symbolic of American sex appeal, and they have integrated themselves into every part of pop culture, from TV shows to brand deals; they've done it all. But, regardless of how prominent the squad is in our culture, how much do we really know about the reigning queens of the football field? 

A journalism student at the University of Texas at Austin, Sonali Menon, will dice into everything cheer: the history of the team, their scandals, the infamous "Making the Team" reality TV show, and the greater implications of what it means to be a woman in the public eye.

I am a bit of a podcast junkie. It doesn't matter if I'm cleaning, working, or blankly staring at the ceiling; I will always have some audio medium flooding my ears in the background. The series that got me into podcasts was "The Orange Tree," which details the tragic death of a UT student named Jennifer Cave. Robert Quigley, my professor for my first-ever reporting course in college, produced it and introduced it to me. I binged it immediately, and I was hooked. "The Orange Tree" was made through UT's audio production house, The Drag, and became one of the top true crime podcasts on Spotify and Apple Music with a 4.8 rating on iTunes. So, I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to produce an episode for The Drag Audio House, the published of “The Orange Tree” under podcast producer Katey Outka.

For my podcast episode, I delved into a world I'd been fascinated with for ages — NFL cheerleading. More specifically, the glamorous realm of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. I had always known about the cheerleaders — when you are a Dallas native, it's a little impossible to avoid their navy and white star motifs — but I became obsessed with them in middle school after watching their reality show "Making the Team." I was thrilled to be able to interview current Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Victoria Kalina for this project to gain insider knowledge about the team. I hope you have as much fun listening to this episode as I had making it!