Since the calendar flipped to 2018, it has been quite a ride for Travis and Jason Kelce. The two were already top players at their positions at the highest level of football, however up to that point they had zero Super Bowl wins between them, and neither was dating the hottest global superstar on the planet.
Since that time, Jason won a Super Bowl, would later retire and get hired by ESPN. Travis has won three Super Bowls, including one directly against his brother. And he also started dating Taylor Swift.
In addition to those amazing things, they also created one of the most consumed podcasts in the sports genre. New Heights, the content I chose to eavesdrop on this week, launched in September of 2022 and was a huge hit from the get-go. The first episode has been viewed almost 400,000 times on YouTube alone. New Heights was named 2022 Podcast of the Year by Sports Illustrated and only aired one-third of the year.
Today, the show has 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube and the most recent episode has been viewed almost 850,000 times since being released three days ago. That doesn’t even count the who knows how many more people who listened to the audio.
2025 marks the start of a new deal for the show with Amazon’s Wondery, which is believed to be a three-year agreement worth more than $100 million.
Wondery CEO Jen Sargent told Variety this when the announcement was made about the partnership: “New Heights on the surface is a sports podcast, and sports is such a well-listened-to category. But it’s become a cultural phenomenon — they’re in that cultural zeitgeist.”
Combined, Jason and Travis have 25 years of experience in the NFL, but the show covers anything from what is happening in the league to their personal lives, their significant others, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and UFOs and everything in between. In addition, they get to talk with some of the biggest names on the planet and the episode I tuned into happened to be with one of those as they interviewed WNBA star Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.
As the episode kicked off, Travis says, “We’re your hosts, I’m Travis Kelce, this is my big brother Jason Kelce out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio…” Jason follows up by saying, “This is a big one, a guest you guys have all been waiting for…we finally got her…Caitlin Clark is here.”
Before they get to that, they do a quick version of a segment called ‘New News’ and promote Jason’s upcoming late-night show on ESPN, They Call it Late Night with Jason Kelce which was debuting a few days after the release of the episode.
Travis asked Jason for a tease or an anecdote about the show and Jason replied, “We are going to have some awesome guests. The whole purpose of the show is to celebrate the sport of football…It’s really just an excuse to get together a bunch of guys and bullsh** about a sport we all love and do a bunch of fun creative comedy bits with some incredible writers. Being creative is just a joy and I think that between the band, the audience, the players and all the people that are going to be there, I just think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m incredibly intimidated by it, I’m terrified about how it’s going to go, but at the same time it makes you feel alive. There’s something about being afraid that makes you excited.”
Travis replied, “That’s such a great feeling to have…I’m happy as hell for you brother. I can’t wait.”
Then they get right to the conversation they had recorded with Clark. It is pretty obvious from the start, the Kelce brothers are hyped to have her on and say she is “the most requested guest in the history of our show.”
Clark later says when she is brought in, “I don’t get excited about many things, but this, this was at the top of my list.”
Mixed in with a lot of laughs and cracking each other up, Jason asks a lot of good questions and because they keep it very loose, they tend to get good answers. Jason makes the point to Clark that she is “like the Wayne Gretzky for basketball” and explains her accolade list is a mile long similar to all the records Gretzky holds.
After Jason learns he and Catilin were both marketing majors, he asks her about being a Chiefs fan, which she has been since a young age. Clark said she was “a Midwest kid” who had family in Kansas City and grew up just a few hours away in Des Moines, Iowa. “People think I was a bandwagon Chiefs fan,” she said. “I was there before Patrick (Mahomes) and Travis, we were ride or die.”
Even something as simple as sideline heaters led to some compelling content. You would think only football players have had to deal with those, but Clark mentioned a college exhibition she played in which required the heaters. All agreed they can get dangerously hot and that at times you want to stay away from them.
“I’m out on the heaters,” Travis said. “It has to be under 20 degrees…I can’t feel too hot…I’ll start to fall asleep.”
Something else all three have in common, somewhat surprisingly, is a relationship with current Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach. Jason knew him as Andy Reid’s assistant in Philadelphia, Travis obviously knows him now in his current role, while Clark said she met him while he was in Indianapolis, staying at the same hotel as her college team, while he was at the NFL combine a few years ago. The two have stayed in touch since then she said.
Seeing multiple stops on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was yet one more thing the three had in common. Clark said she saw three shows and took her mom to the one in Indianapolis. “I don’t know how you couldn’t have a good time,” Clark said about seeing the show.
The trio also talked about the differences between coming into the NFL versus the WNBA. Whereas the NFL has plenty of time between the draft and the start of the season, the WNBA draft happens right after the college season ends and the season starts fairly quickly after the draft. Clark said while she would have preferred more time, it did happen so quickly she really had no time to think much about it, it all just happened so fast. She said the Olympic break ended up working out in her favor as she was able to get about a month off.
They talked about what it is like being a rookie in pro sports and while Clark said she thought it took her some time to figure out what to say and get a handle on everything, Jason Kelce said to her, “For not knowing, you nailed it!”
They mentioned older players being there to help them and Catilin said for her it has been former Indiana Fever great Tamika Catchings who has been helpful to her since shortly after she was drafted, making her feel welcome and checking in on her from time to time.
You could really tell throughout the interview that Clark felt comfortable, so comfortable she started asking questions back to the guys. When she was asked about her draft day and going No. 1 overall, she asked Jason and Travis about their draft day experiences, which led to a couple of good stories.
Travis had a great line when he said that in the third round he got a call from a Missouri area code and figured it was the St. Louis Rams because, “I had no idea Kansas City was even in Missouri.”
Clark talked about her start in college which came during COVID where only athletes were on campus at first. Clark described the dorm as, “A huge mansion with just college kids running wild.” Jason followed by quickly saying, “I’m not going to lie, that sounds like so much fun, sign me up.”
The entire conversation, all three are so laid back you would think they were best of friends who had known each other for years. Travis threw in questions here and there but spends a lot of the show just dropping in comments and opinions and a lot of what he says is laugh out loud funny. The podcast is so entertaining you sometimes forget how much information and how many peek-behind-the-curtain moments you are hearing until you think back on the episode in its entirety.
Even the ads are somewhat entertaining. Jason and Travis are so uncomfortable doing the ad reads that it gives them a certain charm and authenticity.
As the episode went on, they hit on everything from whether or not they preferred an ocean or a lake to Clark’s recruitment and how she ended up choosing Iowa over Notre Dame. “[Iowa was a] perfect distance, where your parents can’t just show up, but you can go home if you want to.”
We learned about how much hockey Jason and Travis played growing up and what schools everyone dreamed of going to when they were younger.
Clark just continued to get more and more comfortable as the show went on and the episode was very different than a lot of the interviews Clark has done previously. The whole vibe of the show lends to the guests feeling as if they are just talking with a couple of buddies and the audience gets to listen in.
There was a lot of back and forth as the episode went on with the brothers trading off asking questions which had been prepared beforehand. Clark talked about the role her parents played in keeping her away from things until it was time for her to do so and monitoring how much she played so there wasn’t an early burnout.
Later they played a game with Clark called ‘Name a Person,’ which was them going one by one to name athletes from Iowa until they ran out of names. Clark was impressive mostly with her knowledge of which NFL team certain players played for. The game ended when Jason ran out of names, but they had each named quite a few players.
Afterwards the subjects of NIL and the transfer portal came up and each had strong opinions on making sure the athletes get help with the processes and putting limitations on things. Travis even asked, “Have you heard of anyone paying their taxes?” It was a funny question but a serious point in that most athletes won’t think about the money they will need to report and pay because they may not have the guidance or knowledge in that area.
It was great content with terrific insight from three top athletes.
The show ended with ‘We Gotta Ask…’ a segment which Travis quickly explained to Clark that she doesn’t have to answer if she doesn’t want to. Clark obliged each question as they talked about the NBA All Star format, how to improve NBA television ratings, Clark hitting a person in a golf Pro-Am event, her karaoke songs, her favorite basketball shoes, what she would be doing if not playing basketball, her desire to own a rib restaurant and what sides she likes with her barbecue.
It was the perfect way to end the podcast, as it was a segment which was fun and loose, capping off a compelling sixty-minute conversation with one of the most popular athletes on the planet. That, in a nutshell, is what New Heights is all about.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
